Hanegi Forest / 羽根木の森

What was required was to build an apartment house without cutting down any of the existing trees in a quiet residential district in Tokyo, while at the same time staying within a restricted budget. A grid of regular triangles (4 meters to a side) was found as a system which can ensure structural stability while providing adequately-sized living areas even with the arbitrary cut-offs of columns, beams, and girders. This system also provides horizontal rigidity and a structure which allows free spatial composition with proper cantilevering of the floor slabs, even when the spaces around the trees are hollowed out in circular or oval shapes. Each apartment unit is built in a terrace-house style which occupies the floors from the first to the third. This style makes fireproof construction unnecessary between floor and makes it possible to expose real structural system. It also provides the inhabitants with views of the natural setting at various levels.
1階から3階で1住戸となる長屋形式の集合住宅である。既存の大木を1本も切らないという条件のなか、それらを避けるために梁や地中梁を抜いても構造が安定するジオメトリーとして、1辺4ｍの正三角形のグリットを見つけ出した。1階のピロティーでは、森の中を歩く感覚を保存するため天井高を３ｍとし、最小限に留めた個室は鏡とミラーガラスにより存在感をなくし森の木を増幅している。