Seeing the Nagasawa Dental Clinic building, the first thing that might cross the mind is how could such construct exist anywhere besides, perhaps, the Lego world? But, leave it to architect, Kunihiko Matsuba to defy gravity with his two-story house that consists of residential spaces and one dental clinic as well. The about-to-cave-inconstruction’s aim is to reference traditional Japanese architecture in a rather modern manner.
Located in Hachiioji suburb area of Tokyo, the building consists of one big parking lot and three visually separate entities. The first one is a spacious garage that can station two vehicles and the second is reserved for the dental office. The convenient elongated layout offers space for the hallway, waiting lounge and a consultation room as well as dining and bathing area. The third part of the building is reserved for bedrooms and is placed on the edges of the first two and could be barely called ‘second story’ since it optically rests only upon white metal stairs.
Modern architecture from the brilliant Tokyo-based architecture firm TYRANT. Linear LED lighting frames both the exterior and the interiors – the subtle glow compliments the all-white sterile minimalism and gives it a dose of residential glow. But it is the exceptional contrast between the serene interior and tensely fragile exterior what makes the Nagasawa stand out. So far, it seems that it’s 1-0 for the architects!
