A-gallery, Jingumae
Renovation of house to Gallery / Multipurpose space.
It’s located in an alley close to “Cat Street” near Shibuya, Harajyuku and Omotesando.
The original exterior design was not so bad as the one of 45 years ago. Presumably it was designed by an competent architect. So, as for the exterior, we intended not to change a lot and to show the original design purely. Actually, we only removed balconies and replaced two sliding windows with fixed large windows.
There is a fine green wall covered with ivy in the rear building, so we take it in as borrowed scenery. We newly set up large windows and a double height so that you can see the green from anywhere in the gallery space.
The smallest / biggest concept is “extremely-thin entasis”.
In the usual way of the renovation -only remove the wall-, many columns still remain.
If dozens of timber columns with the thickness of 10.5cm (approx.15cm diagonally) remain, you cannot feel as one large space.
So, we replaced timber columns with “Extremely-thin entasis” - the extremely thin tapered cast stainless-steel pillar. The tapered shape is the result of structural analysis pursuing the ultimate thinness. In addition, we decorated the end of pillar like furniture so that it doesn’t look like a pillar. Thus, we intended to erase the presence of pillar as much as possible.
By “Extremely-thin entasis” and large windows with a full glass of green, the old house has been born again as a light and spacious space suitable for a gallery.
