Amar Bari Apartment by Hiroaki Iwasa is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2024 A' Design Award in Architecture, Building and Structure Design Competition Category.
IronArchitecture· 2024
Amar Bari Apartment
Client: Hiroaki Iwasa
A' Design Award Winner in Architecture Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #154992The Design
About Amar Bari Apartment
This architecture is a four-unit rental apartment for single person households in central Tokyo. It was designed based on the Japanese philosophy of Chisoku. And it was designed with bare concrete frame that maximize the limit of the site, and also with wooden booths where minimum living facilities and appliances were hidden inside. As a result, a freely space with a height of 3.5 meters was created. The residents use this blank space as an opportunity to enjoy their lives and to use it to collaborate with the local community. The project was designed to capture this blank space.
The Recognition
About the A' Design Award
Amar Bari Apartment is an Iron A' Design Award winner, a prestigious recognition granted to good designs that meet the professional and industrial requirements expected from well-designed creations. Iron winners demonstrate great skill, high specialization, expert understanding, and creative capacity of their creators. Amar Bari Apartment is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished creation that is practical and innovative. This Iron A' Design Award-winning design integrates industry best practices and has competent technical characteristics linked with know-how and talent. Amar Bari Apartment is respected for its thoroughness and is designed to provide quality of life improvements that help make the world a better place.
Interviews
Design Interview
What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
The principle of my work is to honestly face the situation the project is facing.
It is essential for making appropriate judgments about the situation, such as what is necessary for the client's situation, what is necessary for the environment, and what should be done now within the time axis.
What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
I focus on creating blank spaces with potential for development,
I wanted to make it simple and sophisticated.
What are your future plans for this award winning design?
I will examine how this architecture helps the lives of individual residents.
Grand Interview
Your innovative integration of Japanese Chisoku philosophy into Amar Bari Apartment has created a remarkable balance between minimalism and livability - could you elaborate on how this ancient wisdom shaped your architectural decisions?
The philosophy of Chisoku is a philosophy that can be applied to various phenomena such as modern daily life and outlook on life.Many modern people have become junkies, giving priority to temporary desires and eating more than they need, or exploiting others more than they need to make a profit. As a result of pursuing one's desires without having an overview and rational self-control, people are exhausted because there is no "blank space" in the limited time and space.Now, by turning Chisoku's philosophy into an architecture, I thought it was necessary to have a "blank space" in which to step out of that endless loop and rediscover what is truly necessary for one's life.We need the space of "φ empty set" in mathematics.That's why this project was inspired by the client's request for a living space for single people, and aimed to create an ``architecture with blank spaces'' that would provide an opportunity for people to genuinely reevaluate their lives.
The 3.5-meter-high blank space in Amar Bari Apartment serves as a canvas for residents' creativity and community engagement - what inspired you to prioritize this adaptable void in a city known for space constraints?
For this project, it was important to include ``blank time and space'' in the private room other than daily functions.It is possible to fill a private room with daily functions and share the heteronomous "margin time and space" in the city, but this is not an autonomous space.In Japan's urban areas, there are restaurants, laundry facilities, stores where you can get everything from delicatessen items open 24 hours a day, and old-fashioned public baths in older areas.Since these heteronomous living functions can be used as appropriate, this apartment was intentionally designed to minimize the living functions in the private rooms. This is based on the belief that there is a need for an ``autonomous blank space with possibilities'' no matter what kind of constraints there are, be it mental, time, or space.
How did your dimensional research into equipment spaces and human movement patterns influence the multifunctional design solutions implemented throughout Amar Bari Apartment, particularly in the compact yet versatile bathroom and kitchen areas?
Since minimizing the number of equipment booths for daily life functions was an important step in this project, a dimensional investigation into human behavior patterns was necessary. First, I cleared the manufacturer's guaranteed construction dimensions for essential equipment such as the toilet bowl, washing machine, bath/shower booth, refrigerator, and heat source for cooking. Next, I set the dimensions of the unit space while checking the behavior patterns when using each device. After that, I set up a multifunctional space by combining several behavioral patterns into one space.As a result, the small and multifunctional design allows residents to save time without having to walk around, creating more free time.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- This architecture is a four-unit rental apartment for single person households in a high-density residential area located in Central Tokyo. It was designed with bare concrete frame that maximize the limit of the site, and also with wooden booths where minimum living facilities and appliances are hidden inside. This creates a 3.5 meters high freely usable space, which enables each resident to enjoy creating a lifestyle they envision. The project was designed to capture this blank space.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Specification,
Total floor area: 63.4m2,
A unit with bathtub: 16.3m2,
A unit without bathtub: 15.4m2, - Tags
- chisoku, minimal philosophy, reinforced concrete, apartment, emptiness
- Production Technology
- The structure is very simple, using a Frame made of reinforced concrete to ensure high soundproofing and sound insulation as well as a solid space, the equipment booth is made of wood, so that it can store various equipments and its piping with very limited space. These are consistent with the selection of materials that are optimal for each part's function and lifespan, and also leads to simpler construction work.
- Design Challenge
- The challenge was not just minimizing space, but also seeking for a comfortable lifestyle. Residents can also cook simple course meals in the kitchen. The compact washroom which is the size of an airplane lavatory has storage and also some room to change. The bathroom also comes with a clothes dryer, and residents can either chose a bathroom with a bathtub or just a shower. Also as of research, Hiroaki Iwasa designed on the upper surface of the wooden booth, a space which can be used as a loft.
- Research
- To maximize the blank space required a minimal and essential dimensional survey of equipment space and human movement. Based on the research, Hiroaki Iwasa could to expand residents' range of movement and capacity by designing spaces for daily living facilities such as kitchens, toilets, bathrooms, and laundry rooms as spaces with multiple functions rather than single functions.
- Inspiration
- Chisoku is one of the Japanese philosophy, a philosophy that infinitely expands other possibilities by not having excessive desires and valuing the bare essentials. Not only does it concern time and space, but also the relationship between objects and people's minds.The project was based on this philosophy.
- Project Duration
- The project started in March 2009 and finished in January 2011 in central area of Tokyo.
- Operation Flow
- The residents use this blank space, which has no specific purpose, as an opportunity to enjoy their lives and to use it to collaborate with the local community. For example, the residents use the space as an art studio, music studio, office, gallery, etc.
- Image Credits
- Photographer Hiroshi Tabuse
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