This is a house for four households in an urban core. The four households are made up of the parents’ household and those of their three children. From another perspective, this could also be seen as a large family residence for three generations - the parents’ generation, their children’s generation, and the grandchildren’s generation. We had difficulty in deciding upon what the residential unit should be, with the resulting loose spatial structure directly reflecting this. However, by covering all with a “tent”, it appears to be a single building. The first floor contains the residences of the parents and that of the family of the youngest son. The second floor contains the home of the eldest daughter’s family, while the third and fourth floors forms the residence of the eldest son’s family. On the one hand the levels have been divided up according to household, yet overall a single unit of residence has been formed through making the space from the entry to the deep interior a common-use space - termed the “salon”; followed by a tower of children’s rooms next, with each household’s family rooms and bedrooms beyond that. At this time we formally termed that which expresses this structure the “roof”.
		Hamlet (1986-1988) location: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo principal use: private residence site area: 499.6m2 building area: 233.0m2 total floor area: 561.4m2 structure: reinforced concrete, partly steel frame; 4 stories maximum height: 13,000mm architects: Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop structural engineers: SIGLO Associates mechanical engineers: DAN Engineering general contractors: NAKANO Corporation completion date: June, 1988 next back top