Portal for Japanese minimalist architecture

Reflection of Mineral house is located near the center of Tokyo. It sits on a small 44 m² corner plot bounded by two streets. Conforming to legal conditions and in response to the client’s wish for a ‘roofed garage’, the volume was trimmed from various directions. Using the words ‘mineral’ and ‘reflection’ as guiding concepts, Atelier Tekuto proceeded to use subtraction as a positive tool for design.

Minerals are phenomena that combine abstract properties (conceptual objects) with nonfigurative properties (objects whose presence of matter is more tangible). Changes from transparent to translucent to opaque occur according to light intensity and angle. The mineral body cannot be regarded as a simple element.

Reflection is a recent concept pertaining to the perception of space. Vision is an important factor in the recognition of space. By controlling geometries (facets with three factors: transparent, translucent and opaque) and entangling them in a three-dimensional way inside the internal space, visual reflection is induced. This results in a deviation from the restrictiveness of space.

As people move inside the space, or as light enters from changing angles, the facet’s presence changes, creating a dynamic space. In contrast to the abstractness of the polyhedron are the kitchen, counter shelf, stairs, floors and toilet box equipped with functionality that exist as nonfigurative objects.

The third-floor bathroom unit features a mirror finish in stainless steel, which combines both concepts of object and reflection, and presents itself as a substitution of both ‘minerals’ and ‘reflection’.

The Relationship with the surrounding environment is expressed in the small plaza open to the street, a piloti like space that emerged after placing the garage on the ground floor. Its liberating feeling might trigger some change in the surrounding streetscape.