![A photo of this complex seems to make the rounds every few months, and never with proper credit. So FYI internet, what you see here is just the edge of 9 loft-style units designed by the late artist Shusaku Arakawa and his wife Madeline Gins. It’s located in Mikata, a suburb of Tokyo, (conveniently close to the magical and ridiculous ドン キ store a friend and I used to go to.) The concept behind this architectural project (and many others the couple designed and built) is that the overall absurd discomfort of the homes will extend your life by forever keeping you on your toes (in many ways, literally).
So says SushiLog:
Painted in eye-catching blue, pink, red, yellow and other bright colors, the building resembles the indoor playgrounds that attract toddlers at fast-food;restaurants. Inside, each apartment features a dining room with a grainy, surfaced floor that slopes erratically, a sunken kitchen and a study with a concave floor. Electric switches are located in unexpected places on the walls so you have to feel around for the right one. A glass door to the veranda is so small you have to bend to crawl out.
You constantly lose balance and gather yourself up, grab onto a column and occasionally trip and fall. Even worse, there’s no closet space; residents will have to find a way to live there, since the apartment offers only a few solutions. “You’ll learn to figure it out,” says Arakawa. Ten minutes of stumbling around is enough to send even the healthiest young person over the edge. Arakawa says that’s precisely the point. “[The apartment] makes you alert and awakens instincts, so you’ll live better, longer and even forever.”](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lia79lUhC91qzed32o1_400.jpg)
A photo of this complex seems to make the rounds every few months, and never with proper credit. So FYI internet, what you see here is just the edge of 9 loft-style units designed by the late artist Shusaku Arakawa and his wife Madeline Gins. It’s located in Mikata, a suburb of Tokyo, (conveniently close to the magical and ridiculous ドン キ store a friend and I used to go to.) The concept behind this architectural project (and many others the couple designed and built) is that the overall absurd discomfort of the homes will extend your life by forever keeping you on your toes (in many ways, literally).
So says SushiLog:
Painted in eye-catching blue, pink, red, yellow and other bright colors, the building resembles the indoor playgrounds that attract toddlers at fast-food;restaurants. Inside, each apartment features a dining room with a grainy, surfaced floor that slopes erratically, a sunken kitchen and a study with a concave floor. Electric switches are located in unexpected places on the walls so you have to feel around for the right one. A glass door to the veranda is so small you have to bend to crawl out.
You constantly lose balance and gather yourself up, grab onto a column and occasionally trip and fall. Even worse, there’s no closet space; residents will have to find a way to live there, since the apartment offers only a few solutions. “You’ll learn to figure it out,” says Arakawa. Ten minutes of stumbling around is enough to send even the healthiest young person over the edge. Arakawa says that’s precisely the point. “[The apartment] makes you alert and awakens instincts, so you’ll live better, longer and even forever.”
(via crystalc0uture)
Source: architectureblog
