This rental apartment house in Tokyo will surely catch your attention. You might even fall in love with it in case you are a motorbike fan. The 8 apartments of the house are designated for those whose lifestyle is all about motorcycles.
The whole house takes a square plot of about 3111 sq. ft. There is a void just in the middle of the 3-storeyed house body, and the entrance into this void – due to the curved side walls – looks like an extension of the road.
Let me explain: the goal was to allow the residents (who are bikers, as mentioned above) drive their vehicles off the road and straight into the inner yard. Moreover – straight into their homes! The inner yard has 8 entrances (to each separate apartment), so that you drive into the courtyard, open your door and drive inside into the ground floor level of your house. You just leave the motorbike there – the ground floor is also your own personal garage!
However, the apartment itself is not less comfortable because of this unique design. Each residential unit is developed vertically, into the first and the second floors. The idea of a detached-house-in-the-city dream is clearly readable here: every apartment is a private house – a minimized, yet fully functioning 3-storeyed house with a “garage” downstairs.
The small-scaled spaces, the staircase as the hub of the apartment and the traditional Japanese interior whiteness and minimalism create interesting design effects throughout the house: here and there you bump into unexpected, yet cute minimal space designs (like the kitchen block near the staircase, etc.). Of course, these are not apartments for a family of 5 (including 3 children), but they are a really cool and stylish place for a single biker or a biker and his/her partner. Besides, I love the idea of the vertical (instead of traditional horizontal) development of the apartment scenario.
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