00:03When we first saw the block of land, it was so small that we were surprised they wanted to build
00:11the house here.
00:12It's a bit wider than the parking slot.
00:17Lok Tsubo House is home to a young family of four, two parents and two young children.
00:24The Tsubo unit is a particular way to measure the area in Japan.
00:28One Tsubo is 3.3 square meter, so the total area is 6.3 Tsubo.
00:37That's why we called it the Lok Tsubo House.
00:43My name is Yugo Yamada from Altewan Architect.
00:47I designed the Lok Tsubo House.
00:59This site was in Yotsuya, Shinjuku, located in the corner of a group of old houses.
01:07Shinjuku is one of the most famous areas in Tokyo.
01:11It has high office buildings, but also old residential areas with small houses.
01:19As the house is narrow, we wanted to create large vertical space such as atrium in order to help give
01:27the illusion of the bigger place.
01:31The client knew that the place was narrow, so they wanted to expand the space vertically.
01:39The house has three stories, which is the maximum height due to building restrictions.
01:46To maximize space in the house, I opted to skip floor in between for the bathroom and the bedroom.
01:56The entrance features a custom 4.8 meter iron aperture.
02:01It is designed as a big door with an arched window above.
02:06We wanted an elegant element fitted for the plain facade.
02:11The inside of the door has a custom dress-like curtain made by a fabric designer for privacy.
02:20On the wall at the entrance, we added a mirror storage cabinet and a niche for the client speakers.
02:27The mirror door is both functional and helps to make the space appear larger.
02:34In this project, we spent a lot of time deciding the dimension of the atrium.
02:39The family wanted a cafe-like space.
02:44The dining room and the living rooms share the same space.
02:48The ceiling here is a 5 meter tall, so it feels very spacious.
02:54The family spends most of their time here.
02:57The furniture in the living room was selected by the client including the antiques and locker.
03:06The door for the toilet is an antique from 1890, so we match the color of the space to the
03:13door.
03:14Having a separate toilet here allows the family to maintain the privacy of the rest of the house.
03:21As you walk up the step to the kitchen, there is a stretch on one side and a tall mirror
03:27on the other.
03:31This tall mirror is where the family check their full outfit before going out.
03:37The client loves to cook and the requested professional kitchen appliance.
03:43There is a powerful oven by biking, a gas cooktop and commercial range fluid and a large sink.
03:52The kitchen benches and wall were finished in stainless steel to match with the appliance.
03:57It also makes for an easy surface to clean.
04:03On the other side, we continue the stainless steel for the shelves and the drawer.
04:10The kitchen is elevated to separate it from the living room.
04:17This allowed us to out-extra stretch below the kitchen.
04:24From the kitchen, there are stairs that lead to a balcony-like landing.
04:29The stairs float on top iron beams to allow lights through to the kitchen.
04:37Behind the curtain, there is washing machine.
04:42The top of the stairs and the entrance to the bathroom can also be closed off using the same curtain
04:49to create one seamless curtain wall.
04:53In order to create a large and comfortable bathroom, we use entire width of the house.
05:00This means that you have to pass through the bathroom to get to the bedroom.
05:05The bathroom has space for everything you need.
05:09A shower, toilet, sink and even a full-size bathtub.
05:14It's a hotel-like space surrounded by tiles.
05:18The bathroom door is glass.
05:20It allows for light to come through from the front windows.
05:25From the bathroom, the stairs lead to the two bedrooms.
05:31A niche for the book was made using the dead space in the stairs.
05:38The children room has an over three meter ceiling height space.
05:44This room has skylight and window to help keep the space nice and bright.
05:49We also choose bright color for this room as it is also the playroom for the children.
05:56We choose different floors between rooms to emphasize each own ambience.
06:02For the main bedroom, they wanted dark color to focus on the sleep.
06:09There is building storage along the side of the wall in the main bedroom.
06:14It has a lot of space for the parents' clothes and personal items.
06:20On the other side is a space-saving staircase that goes to the rooftop balcony.
06:26Under the stairs, there is even more storage space for clothes and small items.
06:33On the rooftop, we created the widest rooftop balcony that we could make.
06:39The furniture here was made by the client.
06:43The wall panels can be removed to create the bench seat or table.
06:51The land in Tokyo costs a high due to its demand.
06:56If it has a lot of elements, maybe the house size is not as important as we think.
07:05Small inner city homes like Lok Tsubo can have all of the elements the user needs.
07:12But it is not only limited to the house itself.
07:16There is a big park and great infrastructure nearby.
07:19The whole city is an extension of their house.
07:35The dining room has all installed but in the office.
07:35The house .
07:38The house is full.
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