Team Living House in Tokyo by Masatoshi Hirai Architects

Masatoshi Hirai’s Team Living House invites us to reflect on the family home and family interactions. Our enduring perception of the family home is one that consists of separate bedrooms, bathrooms and defined kitchen, living and dining areas. Activities within these spaces are largely independent from one another and privacy is held at a premium. This refurbished apartment in downtown Tokyo reflects a different reality; one of unity over individualism.

When a young family approached Hirai and his team Masatoshi Hirai Architects Atelier (MHAA), they were interested in spending “a brilliant time together nowhere else but in their house.” Hirai had always found houses too far from the reality of family life and community, and instead sought to create a domestic environment that focussed on shared experiences and family life as an extension of one’s self.

Within this home, the family unit can be seen as a team where one can go freely between two subjects. As Hirai explains, the interactions could involve “ironing…while paying attention to children, gathering and having dinner all at once, humming after a song sung in another room, talking to someone lying down on a same floor, and so on. This is a value of Team Living.”

“Team Living House is like a whole living room but slightly divided into various environments to support each member of the family to behave in his/her own way.” Spatially, private rooms are replaced by a series of themed communal spaces that are divided by function. Aside from the bathroom, all spaces are shared by the family. Yes you read that correctly, we’re talking one shared bedroom, study and closet. What a great way to experience the acts of sharing and consideration on a daily basis. These guys are definitely onto something!

The communal spaces are organised in three sections below a newly created triple barrel-vaulted ceiling. While there are few enclosing walls these vaults help to define space. The first section accommodates the bedroom and bathroom, the second the study room and the closet and the third contains the combined kitchen, lounge and dining area with an adjoining terrace. The rough texture of the exposed concrete beams contrasts beautifully with the soft whites tone, natural wood and pale greens that reflect the materials.

While a team is made up of individuals we will always belong when we accept others and the environment as a spatial resource. Within these walls it’s the team that invigorates and renews daily life. Poetic, poignant and graceful, this humble home begs the question: why aren’t we designing more like this?

Related Post: Living Large in Small Spaces.