Nexus Housing
Fukuoka, Japan · 1991
Photo · Photo by Kawano
A precedent for high-density collective housing that utilizes an undulating, wave-like roofscape to integrate private outdoor terraces, pocket gardens, and clerestory lighting into individual multi-level units.
- What we like about this project
- Mounded green turf gardens are integrated directly onto the flat roof portions between the curved vaults.
Materials
- glass
- steel
- concrete
- timber
- zinc-cladding
Visual identifiers
- undulating-roof
- roof-terrace
- clerestory-glazing
- nexus-housing
- fukuoka
Style tags
- deconstructivist
- structural-expressionism
- modernist
Visual tags
- collective-housing
- roofscape
- urban-density
- courtyard-house
- japanese-modernism
- Geometry
- A series of parallel, undulating roof ribbons with curved profiles that rise and fall, creating alternating glazed clerestories and private roof terraces.
- Facade system
- Steel-framed curtain wall with integrated glass panels and operable doors.
- Structural guess
- Reinforced concrete lower structure with lightweight steel-framed roof vaults.
- Spatial scale
- Multi-family residential scale, showing individual multi-level housing units clustered together.
- Lighting
- Dusk illumination with warm interior light glowing through extensive glazing, contrasting with the cool blue twilight sky.
- Atmosphere
- A serene, glowing domestic sanctuary nestled within a dense urban fabric at twilight.
- Environmental context
- Dense urban residential neighborhood in Japan, with mid-rise apartment blocks and distant mountains visible in the background.
- Spatial experience
- The roofscape acts as a private elevated topography, where interior domestic spaces open directly onto pocket gardens and terraces sheltered by the wave-like roof forms.
- Composition rhythm
- Repeating wave-like roof profiles create a rhythmic, undulating horizon line across the housing block.
- Style reading
- Late 20th-century structural expressionism and deconstructivist-influenced housing
- Program
- Multi-family residential housing
- Perspective
- Aerial/Site
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- glass, steel, concrete, timber, zinc-cladding
- Visual identifiers
- undulating-roof, roof-terrace, clerestory-glazing, nexus-housing, fukuoka
- Style tags
- deconstructivist, structural-expressionism, modernist
- Visual tags
- collective-housing, roofscape, urban-density, courtyard-house, japanese-modernism
- Geometry
- A series of parallel, undulating roof ribbons with curved profiles that rise and fall, creating alternating glazed clerestories and private roof terraces.
- Facade system
- Steel-framed curtain wall with integrated glass panels and operable doors.
- Structural guess
- Reinforced concrete lower structure with lightweight steel-framed roof vaults.
- Spatial scale
- Multi-family residential scale, showing individual multi-level housing units clustered together.
- Lighting
- Dusk illumination with warm interior light glowing through extensive glazing, contrasting with the cool blue twilight sky.
- Atmosphere
- A serene, glowing domestic sanctuary nestled within a dense urban fabric at twilight.
- Environmental context
- Dense urban residential neighborhood in Japan, with mid-rise apartment blocks and distant mountains visible in the background.
- Spatial experience
- The roofscape acts as a private elevated topography, where interior domestic spaces open directly onto pocket gardens and terraces sheltered by the wave-like roof forms.
- Composition rhythm
- Repeating wave-like roof profiles create a rhythmic, undulating horizon line across the housing block.
- Style reading
- Late 20th-century structural expressionism and deconstructivist-influenced housing
- Program
- Multi-family residential housing
- Perspective
- Aerial/Site
- Discipline
- architecture