Lot size: 261 m2 (2,818 sq. ft.) Built area: 567 m2 (6,123 sq. ft.) Built: 2011 Photography: Koichi Torimura
Perhaps we have a penchant for Japanese architecture. We certainly feature a lot of it. But, we like to think it’s because a lot of interesting designs result from the challenges Japanese architects face. To put it another way – in adversity, there lies opportunity.
So what is this challenge that Japanese designers face? Space – or lack thereof! Japan is a very mountainous country. Anyone who has travelled there knows that every square centimetre of flat land is used for either farming or housing. In fact, it’s common to see any vacant land – even in the major cities like Tokyo, growing rice or vegetables. Tiny plots become productive mini-farms. Perhaps, a lesson for the rest of us?
A second challenge is that lots are usually very small and very often, irregularly shaped. Now add the reality that the ‘view’, more often than not, is one of power lines and your neighbours.
Most Westerners would consider a 261 m2 too small to build on. Eastern Design Office have used that area to build seven relatively spacious apartments in a visually striking development.
A castle where the boys and girls of the story of Michael Ende could be entering.
It is a triangular building configured by the square elements!
On the corner
The site is a manufacturing area in Youkaichi City in Shiga Prefecture.
There are many big factories in this town. A lot of immigrants from South America live here among
the local people.
This is a residential area as well an industrial area.
It is also a popular drinking area where many bars and restaurants for such common people are
scattered. There is a highway interchange nearby the town.
The shape of the lot is a sharp triangle which is unusual for building a house.
The site is a wedge-shaped flatiron lot which remained at a corner where two streets meet at an
acute angel.
It was left behind neither residential nor for industrial development.
No one wanted to buy it,and the public sector would not invest to change it into a park:
a lot remained bereft of life for a long time.
The elevation of this building takes the shape of the triangle plot.
It is a triangular residential complex of 13 meters height with the base line 23m x height 12m x
oblique line 26m.
It is a typical tenanted apartment house with seven rooms, 1-3rd two units on each floor and one
on the 4th floor.
Each room is composed of a living room of 13 m2, two bed rooms with 13 m2 and 9m2,
a prefabricated bathroom, a kitchen system and a toilet. They are planned to be easy to rent for
town people.
The concrete which serves as a structure is designed carefully.
Other than that specific materials are not used here.
The exterior wall is made out of square cut stone, concrete and glass formed like scattered cards
on it.
They are bound by a “cross” so that the spread out material would not disjoin.
It looks like a present, a toy box or a castle where the boys and girls of the story of Michael Ende
could be entering.
It is a triangular building configured by the square elements.
The cross confines the power of the mixed materials into one.
A shuffle of stones, concretes, and glass. Keen edge of each material is too sharp. A shuffle of
mass and void. The design “on the corner” consists of blue and the cross.
A composition of line and plane surface is created by the clearly distinguished edges of the
material.
The confusing imagination is created to make the so far disregarded place interesting,
which lies at the corner of messy scenery in an inner city
It belongs to no one.
It is nothing.
It does not belong to anything.
It does not belong to any country.
The edge of the triangular pyramid is like a wrecked boat, a fictional tip of a boat as if it were
escaping from town.
Where on earth is here?
A corner that makes you feel you are nowhere at the end of the world, where no one can go
further anymore.
It is far from the center of town, a place which makes you wonder where you are.
It is a place to make the town to be nowhere but only here, and it makes you feel like a
distinguished person.
We want to highlight the discarded lot from the urban framework by emphasizing its shape,
building architecture similar to illusion.
An illusion required by the town people.
Reality that is similar to an illusion that one town has something to do with someone.
It seems as if this illusion deceives people to obscure their eyesight and feel invited to another
world.
It is pretentious, yet it is surrealistic too.
Click on any image to start lightbox display. Use your Esc key to close the lightbox. You can also view the images as a slideshow if you prefer
Your details will never be shared with any third party.
Unsubscribe at any time with a single click.
The posts on this site sometimes contain an affiliate link or links to Amazon or other marketplaces. An affiliate link means that this business may earn advertising or referral fees if you make a purchase through those links.
Accessibility
Accessibility modes
Epilepsy Safe Mode
Dampens color and removes blinks
This mode enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
Visually Impaired Mode
Improves website's visuals
This mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
Cognitive Disability Mode
Helps to focus on specific content
This mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
ADHD Friendly Mode
Reduces distractions and improve focus
This mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
Blindness Mode
Allows using the site with your screen-reader
This mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.
Readable Experience
Content Scaling
Default
Text Magnifier
Readable Font
Dyslexia Friendly
Highlight Titles
Highlight Links
Font Sizing
Default
Line Height
Default
Letter Spacing
Default
Left Aligned
Center Aligned
Right Aligned
Visually Pleasing Experience
Dark Contrast
Light Contrast
Monochrome
High Contrast
High Saturation
Low Saturation
Adjust Text Colors
Adjust Title Colors
Adjust Background Colors
Easy Orientation
Mute Sounds
Hide Images
Virtual Keyboard
Reading Guide
Stop Animations
Reading Mask
Highlight Hover
Highlight Focus
Big Dark Cursor
Big Light Cursor
Cognitive Reading
Navigation Keys
Voice Navigation
Accessibility Statement
architecture.ideas2live4.com
December 23, 2024
Compliance status
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience,
regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level.
These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible
to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific
disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML,
adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Screen-reader and keyboard navigation
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with
screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive
a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements,
alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website.
In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels;
descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups),
and others. Additionally, the background process scans all the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag
for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology.
To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on
as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
Disability profiles supported in our website
Epilepsy Safe Mode: this profile enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
Visually Impaired Mode: this mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
Cognitive Disability Mode: this mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
ADHD Friendly Mode: this mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
Blindness Mode: this mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.
Keyboard Navigation Profile (Motor-Impaired): this profile enables motor-impaired persons to operate the website using the keyboard Tab, Shift+Tab, and the Enter keys. Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
Additional UI, design, and readability adjustments
Font adjustments – users, can increase and decrease its size, change its family (type), adjust the spacing, alignment, line height, and more.
Color adjustments – users can select various color contrast profiles such as light, dark, inverted, and monochrome. Additionally, users can swap color schemes of titles, texts, and backgrounds, with over seven different coloring options.
Animations – person with epilepsy can stop all running animations with the click of a button. Animations controlled by the interface include videos, GIFs, and CSS flashing transitions.
Content highlighting – users can choose to emphasize important elements such as links and titles. They can also choose to highlight focused or hovered elements only.
Audio muting – users with hearing devices may experience headaches or other issues due to automatic audio playing. This option lets users mute the entire website instantly.
Cognitive disorders – we utilize a search engine that is linked to Wikipedia and Wiktionary, allowing people with cognitive disorders to decipher meanings of phrases, initials, slang, and others.
Additional functions – we provide users the option to change cursor color and size, use a printing mode, enable a virtual keyboard, and many other functions.
Browser and assistive technology compatibility
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers).
Notes, comments, and feedback
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs. There may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to