This private residence by Ron Arad and ISSHO Architects is situated in the highly desirable Shibuya-ku area of central Tokyo, distinguished by densely arranged 2-3 storey-ed detached houses. The angular house occupies the oblong, rectangular site to maximum efficiency, with the street-facing façade expressing more freedom of form, arranged in a playful, unfurled stack of patinated steel ribbons. Combined with retractable steel mesh curtains, the frayed paper-like ribbons cast dynamic shadows across the building front. They were designed to both form and enclose a front courtyard and cater to different levels of exposure to the street. The stacked components decrease in height higher up the façade, in order to emphasise perspectival effect, and are mechanically fastened to the fair-faced concrete walls behind, celebrating the formal relation between standalone sculptural piece and a private house.
Info and images © Ron Arad
