DMA's 'room with pockets' promises to organise the life of a designer

inspired to tackle the often — how should it be put… — creatively unorganised life of a designer, daisuke motogi architecture has come up with an architectural solution that promises to deal with the ‘noises’ of everyday life. in a tokyo-apartment belonging to one fitting and unnamed individual the architectural practice has created a ‘room with pockets’ and self-contained solution to the noises of design.

DMA create a ‘room with pockets’ to organise the life of a designer,
images © kenta hasegawa

when looking to create a dedicated space for design, whilst also offering space-saving solutions DMA‘s tight budget meant that changing location of certain rooms was out of the question. as is typical in japanese apartment buildings, kitchens and bathroom areas are often located on the north side facing the common corridor. in this case, however, the kitchen and bathroom sections was located in the middle section of the apartment, with the living room on the south and the bedroom on the north.

the idea of DMA was to reorganize and gather newer solutions around the kitchen and bathroom areas

as the existing storage had been dispersed throughout the house, the idea of DMA was to reorganize and gather newer solutions around the kitchen and bathroom areas by wrapping an economically built wooden framework in a fabric wall with a builtin system of pockets for the accoutrements of a designer. the structure hopes to create a more tolerant living environment by counteracting the perfectionism the japan-based studio feels is inherent tidying a space and offering new ways to organize ‘noise’.

the structure hopes to create a more tolerant living environment

‘clearing all the things completely is not the only way to make the table look tidy. one can rearrange miscellaneous existing things on the grid layout to make it look beautiful,’ explains DMA. ‘it is also possible to design a background that embraces co-existence of miscellaneous daily things. I would like to explore a way to design more generously, other than just clearing out unnecessary things or restricting uncontrollable things.’

pockets vary in size, with some using button poppers