Housing Complex Niigata III

Housing Complex Niigata III is an apartment building composed of 34 dwellings(40sqm-98sqm). We tried to reconstruct the relationship between inside and outside spaces in collective housing in an urbanized, high density context.

To express both a human scale and the density of the city, dwellings were stacked in 2-3 storey volumes with a similar proportion to the old wooden row houses nearby. The structural frame adopts an urban scale comprising a 10-storey housing complex. The two contradictory scales are demonstrated in both the residential space and the cityscape. The urban scale of columns and beams within rooms give residents an awareness of the neighboring dwellings, reminding them of their connection to the collective.

In recent years, old buildings in this area being lost, we envisage this structure as archival architecture, inheriting fragments of the historical cityscape and expressing memories in the future.