Wooden Forest Apartment

Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects

Wooden Forest Apartment

Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects

ARCHITECTS
Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects: Ikeda Yukie Architects / Ikeda Yukie, Ohno Toshiharu

AREA
118 m²

YEAR
2009

LOCATION
Nakano, Japan

CATEGORY
Apartments

Originally, the second floor was an old style Japanese lodging with several walls dividing the floor into tiny rooms.

Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects

Since then, numerous renovations and extensions were carried out.

Immediately prior to our joining the project, the second floor was used as a part of family house - a bit chaotic and still with a scattering of columns, remnants of the old walls.

Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects

In order to comply with Japanese law, any changes to the structure of a wooden house situated in a fire protection area would require approval and take considerable time.

The client was interested in a quicker turn-around and therefore we could not remove the all-too-many forest-like columns.

Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects

The remaining structures other than columns weren’t suitable to be seen.

We started by wrapping them which allowed for the forest-like columns to stand out beautifully.

Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects

To counteract the ‘busy-ness’ created the columns, we placed between them movable boxes which function both as storage and partition.

In order to minimize the other elements, we utilized white wrapping.

Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects

This ultimately resulted in forest-like columns as colours seemingly floating in space.


Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects


Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects


Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects


Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects

Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects


Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment
© Ikeda Yukie Ono Toshiharu Architects
Wooden Forest Apartment


Wooden Forest Apartment
Plan
Wooden Forest Apartment
Plan
Wooden Forest Apartment
Plan
Wooden Forest Apartment
Plan


Wooden Forest Apartment
Section