Located in Tokyo, the capital of Japan, with a busy commercial industry and high land value, projects here have to think of space saving design ideas as well as construction costs.
The Japanese notion ‘scrap and build’ (also known as New Build) is a well known term throughout Tokyo. Many plots are bought and sold at the same rate as new developments with average turnaround at design seven years, maintenance fifteen years, structural thirty years and the overall purpose of building as twenty years. This means that there is a new building being constructed from scratch every twenty years on average.
I have planed a prototype which suggests a proposal for the future. It faces and tries to answer the questions asked by contemporary Urban Development and Global Environmental issues, with the notion of ‘scrap and build’ in mind.
My proposal looks at using a high performance Concrete to achieve a long term lifespan and structural endurance. The design looks at maximising the open plan floor area overall with ideas such as Maintenance Free and Reverse-Beam Structure; hiding all servicing and structural frame within the floor and overall construction.
The use of a Structural Wall had been integrated into the design with the work of Corbusier in mind. This gives the project “Domino System” effect; solid, stacked floors with clear open spaces between. The idea is that the building would take on a whole new appearance once the façade had been fixed on.
Proposing this “Domino” notion, influenced by Corbusier, the design is made up of fixed floors, offering a solid ground with open plan floor space. This offers the maximum square meters, yet still applies with Japanese building standards.
The outcome is a project which looks into a social issue with space, the environment and urban development.