A.L.X. / junichi sampei: on the cherry blossom

A.L.X. / junichi sampei: on the cherry blossom all images courtesy A.L.X. photographer: kouichi torimura

japanese practice A.L.X. has designed ‘on the cherry blossom’, a three-storey house on the corner of a residential street in tokyo. using two nearby cherry blossom trees as a design element in the project, the dwelling is limited in its street-level interaction but opens up with a wide floor-to-ceiling window face on the upper-most floor.

exterior views

enclosed by an apartment building, a parking lot to the west, a residential street and a graveyard, the site does not encourage much exchange at ground level. composed of multiple cubic volumes fitted together, the top-heavy design offers the least amount of floor area at the street level but incrementally grows as it climbs to the third storey. at the higher vantage point, the dining space opens up to the cherry blossoms outside which serve as a backdrop to the space.

dining room

floor plan / level -1

floor plan / level 0

floor plan / level +1

floor plan / level +2

section

section

project info:

structure: reinforced steel height: 9.98 m site area: 71.13 m2 built area: 46.32 m2 total floor area: 85.32 m2 level -1: 9.36 m2 level 0: 8.59 m2 level +1: 27.31 m2 level +2: 40.06 m2