S Design Farm Co., Ltd.

Bath Kitchen House

Bath Kitchen House
© Koichi Torimura

DESIGN
Takeshi Shikauchi Architect Office

CONSTRUCTION
Shinei

PHOTOGRAPHS
Koichi Torimura

AREA
41 m²

YEAR
2012

LOCATION
Funabashi, Japan

CATEGORY
Renovation, Apartment Interiors

According to Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, it is said that there are 1.29 million condominium apartments which is over 30 years old and it is estimated to increase up to 4.47 million in 30 years.

Bath Kitchen House
© Koichi Torimura
Bath Kitchen House
© Koichi Torimura

Residents will get old together with the building and there will be many cases that refurbishment and rehabilitation are not possible due to the cost repair issues.

It could lead to vacancy and turn into slum centering in urban areas. Imbalance of generation, aging of residents and dilapidated buildings are something that are inextricable to each other.

Bath Kitchen House
© Koichi Torimura
Bath Kitchen House
© Koichi Torimura

I thought by the combination of architectural efforts such as "changing the space into one room" "opening and closing by sliding doors" "multi-layered usage" and the idea of "live for a limited time frame even though its small" could change a 40m2 apartment which is thought to be difficult to deal with among real estate market in Japan.

Due to reasons such as "too large for single person" "too small for family" could be changed into an attractive home precisely because it's for a family with small children.

If the fact that newly built level house can be attainable at an amount of money almost same to rented accommodation, the rooms of collective housing will be updated and mixing among generation could happen.

Bath Kitchen House
© Koichi Torimura
Bath Kitchen House
© Koichi Torimura

Moving in of young people is also valuable for maintenance aspect. I believe that "individual design" with a point of view of maintenance of the whole building is essential for stock utilization.

This is a house to live for ten years until the children grows up and become junior high students. We didn't need a kid's room so we chose a small apartment.

Due to the age and size of the apartment, we were able to hold down the expense of the apartment itself and appropriate the budget for renovation cost.

Bath Kitchen House
© Koichi Torimura
Bath Kitchen House
© Koichi Torimura

As requested by the client it is a one room space, with spacious bathroom and kitchen on the window side. The bathroom can be closed by doors securing privacy and waterproof property when using.At other times it is used as the extension of the main space.

By opening and closing the doors the space and the usage of the room is changed and the space is used effectively.The material of the floor is teak. Unity of material makes the space look larger. When thinking about utilizing stock apartments, I think that casual house according to various life stage can be a solution.

Bath Kitchen House
© Koichi Torimura


Bath Kitchen House
Section AA
Bath Kitchen House
Section BB


Bath Kitchen House
Old Floor Plan
Bath Kitchen House
New Floor Plan

S Design Farm Co., Ltd.
T +81 3 6280 7397
S Design Farm Co., Ltd.
Sono Bldg. 1F 1-26-18, Shoto, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0046, China