“ondo” is a house with a cafe, having 3 floors, a basement and a roof terrace and faces one of the most famous parks in Tokyo

Architects: MAMM DESIGN
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Year: 2015
Area: 958 ft²/ 89 m²
Photo courtesy: Daici Ano
Description:

““ondo” is a house with a cafe, having 3 floors, a basement and a roof terrace. On the north side of the plot, the house faces one of the most famous parks in Tokyo. Since the plot is only 38 square meters, it was very important to pay attention to characteristic of the plot which dramatically changes with its vertical level.

The first floor, the café, is raised from ground level by 1.1 meter to be aligned with the park level to have pleasant atmosphere of the park and to provide visibility from the park. It is also advantage to make the basement floor with less excavation. On the second floor, a public lavatory and a transformer station come into sight. So the floor has fewer windows from outside but has two skylights. At the top floor level, by building volume regulation, a volume of the south side house has setback. So the floor can have both north and south views. On the rooftop, you can feel as if you were at the tree top.

As a result, the house consists of two parts. One is “horizontal tube” penetrating from park side to the other side. The part is open to the public. The other is the rest of the volume, just like an ants’ nest, which is, in contrast, totally private space living with skylights.

A couple, occupants of the house, had just a few requests. They want to have a café and to maximize the potential of the plot. Now they enjoy moving up and down between the two parts depending on their feeling etc. Rooms and functions are not one-to-one correspondence in the house.”