chiba manabu

Here in Japan the elite of independent architects regularly display their recent achievements in design to those interested (mainly wannabe elite of independent architecture). this is called "open house". you get to see the architecture just after completion, some time before it is given to the client. so happened recently for chiba manabu. an architect i am very interested in, i even tried to apply once at his office, but was rejected because he hadn't any projects at that time (at least that was what his letter said ;).
the building is a four story appartment house with 3 flats. he takes his turn on the clasic concept of freeing space by hiding everything inside walls. and i mean everything: bathroom, toilet, kitchen applications, storage space and working cells, even the air conditioning (which will mean at least one open door throughout all year...)
walldepth obviously gets problematic here, which he deals with by putting mirrors around the openings. those reflect the exterior and make the window itself appear bigger.
the catch though is a light void and adjoining staircase in the centre of the building. one would think that freeing up a large open room was the idea behind it all. but, ... no. interesting...