Quantity and Quality

A renovation of a single unit with a roof balcony in Zoshigaya, Toshima-ku. A defining feature of this project is the roof balcony, which is linked from the entrance by a doma (a concrete/earthen-floored threshold space). It’s a highly flexible zone where you can come and go with shoes on, and it enables a way of life that exists precisely because the roof balcony is there. Around this doma, we scattered materials of various mass and character. As sunlight and wind—the minute gestures of the environment—shift through the day, each material responds differently, coloring the space in its own way. For example, tile offers an unchanging sense of certainty and calm—something you unconsciously want to touch. By contrast, curtains catch wind and light, letting you enjoy the subtle nuances of the environment. Lastly, a room with a roof balcony in the Tokyo metropolitan core is rare. One reason is that many existing apartment buildings were built in the post–bubble era, when the overriding mission was to secure quantity. At the time, stacking spaces tightly—almost like copy-and-paste—became, socially, a kind of quality in itself. It was, so to speak, an "age of quantity." However, while "quantity" could stand in for "quality" back then, that equation no longer holds amid today’s saturated supply and diversified lifestyles. Even so, among the products of that "age of quantity," there are not a few instances where quality exists—whether through the efforts of clients and designers, or as byproducts of regulations and structural constraints. The unit we chose is one such rare case. By drawing in the quality represented by the roof balcony, we transformed a formerly uniform, "quantity-driven" space into a composite space imbued with quality. With this project, perhaps we’ve been able to point to a possibility for the coming "age of quality."