New uses for a post-COVID-19 time. Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects
24/11/2020.
[TOK] Japan
metalocus, JUAN DE LUCAS
metalocus, JUAN DE LUCAS
Tokyo-based practice, YSLA architects (led by Spanish architect Natalia Sanz Laviña and Japanese architect Takeshi Yamamura), has clad the exterior of the ‘lighthouse’ building in a floating ceramic-concrete façade, complete, opening the corner with two round cuts.
The buildign is located in a crossing along Waseda street, in Tokyo‘s popular Shinjuku neighborhood, the project was originally designed as a hotel but has been delivered as a residential building due to the impact COVID-19 has had on the Tokyo tourism business.
The buildign is located in a crossing along Waseda street, in Tokyo‘s popular Shinjuku neighborhood, the project was originally designed as a hotel but has been delivered as a residential building due to the impact COVID-19 has had on the Tokyo tourism business.
Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects. Photograph by Munetaka Onodera
Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects. Photograph by Munetaka Onodera
Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects. Photograph by Munetaka Onodera
Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects. Photograph by Munetaka Onodera
North entrance. Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects. Photograph by Munetaka Onodera
Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects. Photograph by Munetaka Onodera
Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects. Photograph by Munetaka Onodera
Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects. Photograph by Munetaka Onodera
Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects. Photograph by Munetaka Onodera
Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects. Photograph by Munetaka Onodera
Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects. Photograph by Munetaka Onodera
Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects. Photograph by Munetaka Onodera
Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects. Photograph by Munetaka Onodera
Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects. Photograph by Munetaka Onodera
Miwa みわ. Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects. Photograph by Munetaka Onodera
Miwa みわ. Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects. Photograph by Munetaka Onodera
Miwa みわ. Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects. Photograph by Munetaka Onodera
Miwa みわ. Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects. Photograph by Munetaka Onodera
Ground floor plan. Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects.
First floor plan. Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects.
Axonometric. Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects.
Detail. Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects.
East elevation. Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects.
North elevation. Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects.
Miwa みわ. Lighthouse Housing building by YSLA architects.
YSLA architects designed the nine-story building as a hotel, but changed its use into a residential apartment building due to the effect of coronavirus on the city’s tourism business.
Located on a corner site, ‘lighthouse’ opens outside through two round cuts on its façade, giving access to ground floor was converted into a co-working space for the residents.
Located on a corner site, ‘lighthouse’ opens outside through two round cuts on its façade, giving access to ground floor was converted into a co-working space for the residents.
’We realized during the lockdown the convenience of this kind of spaces,’ notes the Tokyo & Barcelona-based studio. ‘specially in families with children. “the lighthouse” became then the expression of the new normality.’
For the interior, the studio also designed ‘Miwa みわ’, a modular, flexible piece of furniture whose shape references that of the building, and which can be assembled and used in different ways.
Project description by YSLA architects
Building use
Lighthouse Tokyo is a nine story building who was designed as a hotel in the neighborhood of Shinjuku, Tokyo, and has been delivered as a residence building due to the impact of the COVID-19 in the Tokyo tourism business.
Ground floor and levitating facade
The building is in a crossing along Waseda street. The facade was conceived as concrete levitating sheet, who erase the boundaries between interior and exterior, public and private and opens to the street intersection trough two round cuts inviting people from every direction. The building was thought as a lighthouse for the travelers.
The ground floor, reconverted into a co-working space for the residents is the expression of the new normality.
Rooms and Doma space
The building was planned as a series of open floors with a plan developed around the doma space 土間. The doma is in traditional Japanese buildings an area associated with the daily use and the entrance points, and it was the center of the socialization. In this space the guests are allowed to enter with shoes and is the place to gather. The doma is surrounded by a raised floor area that becomes a flexible platform for quiet activities and night use. In this shoeless space the futons are placed at night depending on the number of guests. The boundary between the doma and the raised floor can be close using light partitions, wooden blinds, or curtains.
Change of use
The flexibility of the space together with a plan which enhances the Covid-19 guideliness for ventilation, made possible a successful transformation into apartments. Although the building was plan as a hotel we envisioned the importance of the interior exterior spaces and we design the plan with two balconies per floor/room. In the new apartment layout one balcony is used for leisure and the other for BOH purposes.
These spaces become even more valuable in the middle of the Covid pandemia.
Furniture
YSLA designed Miwa みわ as a modular and flexible furniture that can be assembled and use in different ways and remembers the spirit of the lighthouse in its shape.
More information
Architects
Collaborators
Curtains.- Studio Onder de Linde. Structure.- yAt Structure Design Office.
Main Contractor
FUJIKEN.
Area
Plot area.- 108m².
Building footprint.- 70m².
Building area.- 554m².
Dates
Design period.- 10/2018 - 03/2019.
Construction period.- 07/2019 - 07/2020.
Building completion.- 07/2020.
Location
Shinjuku City. Tokyo, Japan.
Manufacturers
Persiana Barcelona.- Wodden blinds. Sangetsu - Wallpaper.- TH30134, Roll carpet.- FY-54. Tokyo Koei - Flooring.- Oak U90. Sanwa company - Wooden deck.- Cypress KD 90x20. Neo-Nagae Tile - Façade Tile.- Color Taste II. Fuji Sash - Swing window. Teijin - Exterior curtain.- 8933FP silver Grey. Panasonic.- Modify by Naoto Fukasawa. Jimbo - Switch & consent.- Jimbo NK series. Sanwa company - Bathtub.- BT01961. Sink.- WA08841. Toto - Sanitaries.- TOTO CES9435P-NW1.
Photography
Munetaka Onodera.
Yamamura Sanz Laviña Architects. YSLA Architects
YSLA Architects is an architecture and design firm based in Tokyo. YSLA Yamamura Sanz Laviña Architects was founded in 2016 by Spanish architect Natalia Sanz Laviña and Japanese architect and University professor Takeshi Yamamura, after years of experience in Paris, Tokyo and Barcelona, working for Kengo Kuma and Associates and Dominique Perrault Architecture.
YSLA develops its work in both practice and academical fields looking for the inconspicuous elements or relations and aiming to design the architecture, the city, the landscape & the space mutually richer, unique and contemporary.
YSLA develops its work in both practice and academical fields looking for the inconspicuous elements or relations and aiming to design the architecture, the city, the landscape & the space mutually richer, unique and contemporary.
