The main outline of the design emerged from social factors. The request was for the provision of rental studio apartments, mandated by risk and cost management concerns, to the maximum number possible within the maximum volume as provided by the overly accommodating standards of the local authority. Stating the extreme, this building makes up part of the city and society, while simultaneously being a representation of these things, manifesting what could be said to be a “fractal-like” relationship. It appeared straightforward enough to uniformly lay out the constraints but simply pursuing efficiency of residential space led to difficulties as it collided against and was dispersed by the contradictions present in the complexity of the requirements. By moving the elements around so that all the walls of all rooms were linked, and by introducing the “meta-level” conditions of making aesthetically pleasing spaces and voids, we eventually produced a design that arranged the requirements in a rational way.
		Eda Apartment (2002-) location: Aoba-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture architects: Office of Ryue Nishizawa producers: Takagi Planning Office structural engineers: Sasaki Structural Consultants mechanical engineers: Kankyo Engineering site area: 3,195m2 building area: 2,162m2 total floor area: 8,860m2 basement floor area: 1,910m2 1st floor area: 1,748m2 2nd floor area: 2,031m2 3rd floor area: 2,031m2 4th floor area: 1,140m2 dwelling unit area: 24 - 102m2 structure: steel frame and reinforced concrete; 1 basement and 4 stories maximum height: 9,896mm type of dwelling: private, rental dwelling number of dwelling: 100 next back top