Tokiwadai Apartments

Located in Itabashi City, Tokyo, Tokiwadai Apartments are multi-unit apartments with five floors above ground and a basement, which consist of seven single-person units.

The site can be found after a 10-minute walk up a mild hill from Tokiwadai Station on the Tobu Tojo Line. The site's address, which includes the word: "Fujimigaoka (literally: a hill with a view of Mt. Fuji)," suggests that Mt. Fuji used to be viewed from here. Today, however, this area has a typical suburban landscape comprised of detached houses and apartments, and does not provide much of a view at all, much less one of Mt. Fuji.
To the north, this site is situated along the—probably historical—Fujimi Kaido route, which serves as an alternative route to Loop Road No. 7. Without the view of Mt. Fuji, the area no longer has an "elegant" atmosphere. Rather, "rough" might be a better word to describe it, where heavy trucks frequently pass by. Old wooden houses and wooden apartments stand to the south and east in respectively close priximity. A massive, muti-tenant building also stands to the west, across a narrow road. We cannot say it is the best living environment, so in order to construct residential apartments for single dwellers that optimize the use of the floor area, a five-storey building with a basement seemed the most appropriate choice.

Considering the setting described above, the surrounding environment greatly varies from the basement to the fifth floor. Thus, it is not a realistic option to build an apartment block which has identical floor plans. Also, taking the floor area per unit into consideration, the most desirable number of units is seven. If we set up seven units in the six-storey building, including the basement, each unit can have a different floor plan. Therefore, the overall plan would be like this: narrow housing units surrounding the stairs at the core, each unit is L-shaped or an L-shaped duplex; and the terraces and different sizes of windows work to adjust the sense of distance from the surrounding environment which changes with each level. Although you cannot view Mt. Fuji from the premises anymore, each unit on each floor has an "almost" view.