ZERO ENERGY SECTION MODULE UNITS PLAN

MODULE WIDTH 2.225M and space for modifications, like movable partition, or large scale refurnishing.

SITE: Kitagata, Gifu, Japan SITE AREA: 7000m²

BUILDING HEIGHT: 10 floors

YEAR: 1994-1998

HOUSING: 107 social housing units

The small town Kitagata is under the administrative division of Gifu city in Japan. In the 1990s the town government initiated a dense social housing development in the context of a detached mid density town. Four towers compose of the Hightown Kitagata development, each designed by a female architect. Sejima Kazuyo, an architect of the SANNA firm designed the southeastern building, which bears her name.

The defining features of the Sejima are its parallel twin corridor plan one for private and one for public circulation, as well as the double floored apartments composed of four basic types of modules in section.

The units are extremely narrow however the simplistic design creates both affordability and encourages user ingenuity and agency. The southern and northern facades are both minimalist, yet are of contrasting in design: the monotonous north facde expressing modular order and the south celebrates the varied and interlocking unit layouts.

From my experience living in high-rise apartments, an extremely important function of a glazed balcony (regardless whether it serves as a corridor or simply as a space in of itself) is that my grand parents would seize every opportunity and every square centimeter to advance their gardening enterprise.

This urge to personalize space is not meet by Senjima’s narrow Hiroen, with only 725mm of width regularly and at the narrowest a mere 400mm, additionally having to accomodate door swings; Yet I have observed from photos that residences excercise gardening regardless Another gravely missed opportunity, due to the project’s age, was the ability to utilize this southerly glazed face as a climatic intermediate sunspace.

Photos Personal Works

As a hobbyist photographer I love capturing incidental moments, on the street, events, or travels. I developed an eye for light, shadows and colors, as well as the skills to highlight each image's unique character editing softwares Ps and Lr.

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