From outside, it seems like a typical Tokyo triplex: three stacked dwellings beneath a pitched roof. But the flats aren’t exactly confined to a single floor. To bring light into the basement, the architects bent the ceiling upward in two spots to insert an entrance on one end and generous windows that funnel light deep below on the opposite. In the unit above, these ceiling bends translate into floor inclines, so the architects lifted the ceiling here as well, creating the same give-and-take relationship with the upstairs neighbour. Into these folded planes, the firm built millwork: desks, kitchen amenities, wash stations and elevated window ledges. The ethos is one of cooperation; each dwelling borrows from its neighbours what it needs, and all are better off for it.
Team Tomoyuki Tsukagoshi and Jumpei Miyashita (Tsukagoshi Miyashita Sekkei); Hirofumi Ohno (Ohno Japan); Suguru Bando; Kohei Yamada
The ethos of Apartment S is one of cooperation; each dwelling borrows from its neighbours what it needs, and all are better off for it.