This is the renovation project of a house with a store and gallery. Another family had lived on the 1st to 3rd floors, and had managed the beauty salon on the basement floor. Housing part had been limited to the 2nd and 3rd floors, and the 1st floor had been changed to a rented store and basement floor to a gallery of the client, because the client needed his house,a gallery, a rent space for a store.
We tried to create space/element that can be created by renovation. Existing stocks have many objects / element which cannot be created by new construction because of many reasons like cost, legal, and so on.
For example, we focused on the fact that it has a large span and fire resistance due to the exiting RC structure, and created large living-dining-kitchen space by removing the partitions.
The stair hall, which was space for only going up/down because of surrounding fire protection wall and door, was connected with living-dining-kitchen space and became a dynamic space with a three-story atrium(that is not easy to create in Japan because of architectural law)by relocating the fire protection and separating the three uses-private house, store, and gallery.
We considered carefully what/how should we add/remove/leave every stuffs, and mixed the old and new, not compare those.
