House design with large windows that give it the advantage of versatility,
The five-storey Bay Window Tower House was designed and built for a married couple with their two children and two cats.
Takaaki Fuji + Yuko Fuji Architecture, based in Tokyo, built the apartment tower,
which has large windows on all sides.
The project combines housing and office located in a small urban area, while featuring large windows on all sides.
The architects, who implemented the project, after conducting a thorough research on bay windows around the world,
found that they take many forms and play many attractive roles in the design of the building.
Design Features
The five-storey tower features large windows on every floor and every side of the building, providing residents with plenty of options for where to spend their time.
The windows in this tower are transformed into spaces for sitting, writing, sleeping, decorating and many other activities.
The fate of new buildings in these small urban areas has often been to block the windows of the surrounding buildings, creating a feeling of suffocation.
The architects designed for this project solved the problem,
by slicing the corners of the building and creating pockets of space in the four corners of the plot.
For the residents of the tower, these enclaves are designed as small gardens,
while for the neighbors the somewhat expanded space in front of their windows turns them into large windows as well.
On the outside, the architects cut corners, creating an octagonal footprint,
as this shape is effective in reducing airflow turbulence around the building.
House design with large windows that give it the advantage of versatility
In addition, they analyzed the surrounding microclimate in order to reduce dependence on mechanical devices such as air conditioning as much as possible.
They came up with three types of large windows by observing simulated conditions of light,
wind and heat that included the surrounding buildings.
The three types are transparent windows to let in light; windows that function like openable walls,
blocking out light and heat but letting in breezes; The windows, which act as fixed walls,
block out the heat and breezes.
The studio has distributed these three types of windows throughout the building in a way that maximizes their effectiveness in terms of lighting, ventilation and heat.
The architects covered the exterior with carbonated cork,
which is a light, highly insulating, mildew-resistant material that’s easy to work with.
After looking at certain times of the year in some parts of the house that may have a high heat load,
charred cork acts as a high heat capacity insulator to reduce heat load.
The tower offers a variety of places whose environments vary according to season, time, land and direction.
