Reversible Destiny Lofts
The Reversible Destiny Lofts MITAKA - In Memory of Helen Keller is an apartment complex made up of nine individual housing units designed by architectural and design duo Shusaku Arakawa and Madeline Gins and located in Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan.[1] The Lofts are known for their bright candy colors, geometrical shapes, and their overall unorthodox and illogical design. Along with this, the Lofts are also often noted for their dedication to the designers' ideologies and their thematic exploration of aging, human behavior and ultimately the fate of death.
History
The Reversible Destiny Lofts were created as a way to further investigate the Reversible Destiny Foundation’s past works and findings and apply them to a fully residential space. Many of the design elements and conceptual planning seen in the Lofts were initially utilized and explored in their work Bioscleave House located in East Hampton, New York, started in 1998.[1] However, the project truly began with Gins and Arakawa's collaborative project The Mechanisms of Meaning that would lay out the line of thinking that standardized architectural orders and thinking must be challenged and unlearned.[2]
Completed in 2005, the Lofts currently serve as a tourist attraction, an opportunity for education through experience as well as a place to lease for long and short term housing. This was the first of Gins and Arakawa's works to be open to the public as a livable residential space.
Concept and philosophy
The Lofts are primarily inspired by the concepts of procedural architecture and the architectural body, ideas posed by the book Architectural Body written by Arakawa and Gins. This title explores the relationship between the mind, body and environment and frames it as one that is extremely important and must be the site for constant transformation in order to lead a fulfilling life. According to Architectural Body, in keeping the mind and body engaged, architecture or the environment accomplishes its primary objective: to be of service to the human body and those who inhabit it.[3]
This prolonged awareness aims to provide inhabitants with the opportunity to make beneficial and holistic choices based on the patterns brought to their attention by their environment. This attentiveness would, in theory, also work to keep one’s mind and body from growing stagnant and away from redundant and unproductive habits, a danger Arakawa and Gins warn about in their work The Mechanisms of Meaning. The Mechanisms of Meaning was a series of puzzles and images that critically analyzed the ways the mind and architecture falls into patterned, standardized thinking and calls upon the importance of alternatives, unique thinking and innovation.[2]
In the eyes of Arakawa and Gins, this introspection was a way to push individuals past their preconceived capabilities, in most cases in reference to the body and aging, and would eventually pave the road to challenge even the inescapable fate of death.[3] This gives the Lofts and the pair’s foundation the name of “Reversible destiny”.
The pair saw Helen Keller as a source of inspiration, seeing her unique perspective and interpretation of the world as revolutionary. She was a figure that practiced the Reversible Destiny concept of adaptation, innovation and environmental awareness in her everyday life and thus the Lofts are dedicated to her memory.[4]
Relevancy to the Reversible Destiny Lofts
These concepts were incorporated into the Lofts through their unusual and unpredictable design. It was Gins and Arakawa's ultimate goal to break away from ineffective habitual behavior and instead create a space that would actively challenge its inhabitants. It was the Loft's purpose to do so both mentally and physically and were constructed with exterior and interior elements hoping to achieve this. The pair believed these features would force the viewer to interact with their surroundings in a way that prompts higher cognitive thinking and more involved physical movement not typical of residential spaces.
Instead of allowing its residents to fall into comfortability and routine, the duo wanted the inconvenience of the Lofts to bring to attention the habits and behaviors of those residents. This in turn would present people with the opportunity to more closely observe themselves and analyze how they could improve such habits and have more purposeful interactions with their surroundings.[5] The designers also hoped that this movement and introspection would eventually improve physical and mental health.
Design
Despite its role as a residential building, the Lofts are often the site of design choices that are unfitting of its designation. Rather than center itself around the habits and behaviors of residents as is common in domestic spheres, the Lofts are designed specifically to challenge and disband these elements.[5] The interior in particular requires a higher level of spatial awareness than the typical apartment, and has multiple instances where it is physically demanding of the inhabitants.
Naturally, the design is heavily influenced by Arakawa and Gins’ belief that an engaging and stimulating environment would help keep inhabitants' minds and bodies sharp, in turn improving overall health and life expectancy. In the words of Arakawa himself, those "who inhabit these spaces are given possibilities to discover the full potential of the body and experience challenging environments."[6]
The Lofts’ overall design and style depend on the terms and ideologies laid out by Arakawa and Gins, and are influenced considerably by abstract, avant-garde and open concept design.
Exterior
The Reversible Destiny Lofts are recognizable through their animated and vivid exterior, specifically meant to stand out against the muted tones typical of urban Japan as well as the scenery observed if arriving at the Lofts by train[5]. The building utilizes the sphere, cube and tube in its architecture, achieving these geometric shapes through the use of pre-molded concrete and steel framing.[7] These odd shapes are further accentuated by the Lofts' variable palette, sporting about fourteen different colors in total.[4]
Interior
The size of the interior of the Lofts tends to vary, with units large enough to support up to four guests as well as smaller ones for parties of two (called “couple” spaces) being offered.[8] The design of the interior is where the Lofts truly begin to distinguish themselves from traditional domestic spaces. While the specific level of difficulty varies from unit to unit, with some units being geared towards children and others toward adults, all experience the use of bright, contrasting colors, shifts in elevation and scale, uneven terrain, and make use of the sphere, cube and tubular shapes.[4] The interior space encourages its inhabitants to explore and discover it by morphing common living spaces into something that is unrecognizable, such as rendering the bathroom, characterized by a tub and toilet, into a glass tube in a spherical shape.[9] Along with changing the appearance of a residential space, the Lofts also appear to disrupt the behavior common within these areas.
General layout
Most of the units sport open, circular floor plans that usually have two or three smaller rooms surrounding it. These rooms consist of the bedroom, bathroom, a tatami room (in the case of the four person design) and smaller “study rooms”. These spaces utilize the geometric shape motif in the exterior where the bathrooms tend to use the tube or cube shape, the bedrooms and tatami use the cube and the study rooms are spherical in nature.[5] These compartments while having no doors, offer privacy in their somewhat enclosed design. The bedrooms in particular tend to lack the intensity seen throughout the rest of the Lofts, meant to act as a sort of rest stop. The main body of the Lofts are commonly ruled by a large, sunken, central kitchen and tend to lack the bulky, mobile furniture that is typical of living spaces.[5] This results in an area that is spacious and emulates the idea of open concept design, meant to further encourage movement from the inhabitants. Multicolored, different sized poles run from floor to ceiling, and are used in order to aid in movement around the space.[6]
Furniture
The Lofts are sparsely decorated with furniture. The furniture that does exist is usually attached to the ground such as the kitchen counter table. Drawers and dressers are replaced by hooks suspended from the ceiling from which to hang clothing and belongings from.[4] Chairs take the form of bean bags and floor mats or occasionally hammocks hanging from the ceiling. This bareness is partly due to the bumpy nature of the floor as well as an attempt to maximize floor space. Instead of stairs, the Lofts make use of ladders.
Floors and walls
The walls within the Lofts, specifically within the study rooms curve in order to create the spherical and tubular shapes seen in the exterior. Much like most other interior elements, the walls are painted with the same 14 color palette, allowing for variation throughout the units. The floors, made of hardened soil and cement, dip and rise, creating a bumpy and uneven terrain underfoot.[4] Occasionally, the viewer finds relief from this rough flooring in the flatness of bedroom floors, which are made of wooden paneling.[4]
Ceilings
The ceilings throughout the units are high, decorated with saturated tubes and wires. Along with this, the ceilings are strung with retractable electrical extension cords and hooks. The hooks are meant to act as hangers to store belongings like clothing and bags as the Lofts have no closets. These hooks and cords are accessible through the use of a ladder rather than stairs.
Windows
Prioritizing natural light, most of the units of the Lofts have multiple windows throughout the apartment. These are elongated and narrow, placed at various heights, typically at exaggerated highs and lows[7], and are most commonly seen in the study room and bedroom spaces.
Usage and current state
To this day, the Lofts are still able to be rented with leasing prices at about $1,000 per week or $763,000 to purchase[1]. Educational tours of the Lofts are also offered, taking guests through the Lofts and explaining the philosophies at the core of their design as well as teaching about Gins and Arakawa's lifelong work.
More abstractly, the Lofts also serve as an in-depth look at the development of architectural design in recent years, as well as the way residential spaces can often be seen as works of art that transcend utilitarian use and reinvent the role of such art in society.[1]
Depictions in popular media
Due to their abstract and unique look, the Reversible Destiny Lofts are very commonly the site for fashion shoots in Japan and have made an appearance in magazines like Kids +, Milk Japon, Voice Girls and SWITCH.[10]
Television
The episode titled Japan of the HBO television series Girls is filmed on the site of the Reversible Destiny Lofts.[10]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Biddle, Erika (2013-01-01). "Freedom and torture: the new architecture of domination and refusal. The aesthetics of refusal and architectural atavism". Comunicação & Cultura (15): 73–88. doi:10.34632/comunicacaoecultura.2013.5117. ISSN 1167-4687.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Schneider, Tatjana (2016). "Spaces of Complexity On Not-Knowing, Un-Learning and 'Panoramas of Possibilities" (PDF). Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 3.0 3.1 Gins, Madeline (2002). Architectural Body. University of Alabama Press. p. 4. ISBN 0-8173-1168-8. Search this book on
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Doezema, Marie (2019-08-20). "Could Architecture Help You Live Forever?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Keane, Jondi (2008-11-05). "Constructing the Conditions of and Environments for Interdisciplinary Research on Perception and Action". Ecological Psychology. 20 (4): 343–360. doi:10.1080/10407410802433093. ISSN 1040-7413.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Beaudoin, Clayton (2020-07-15). "Urban Inter-Space: Convergence of Human Interaction and Form". Masters Theses. doi:10.7275/vkte-6b94.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Chapon, Pierre-Marie; Werner, Odile; Olivry, Ivan (2011-03-28). "Architecture et grand âge". Retraite et société. n° 60 (1): 241–252. doi:10.3917/rs.060.0241. ISSN 1167-4687.
- ↑ Stark, Charlotte (2015-07-14). "When Art Marries Function: Reversible Destiny Lofts MITAKA - In Memory of Helen Keller". Design Made in Japan. Retrieved 2021-04-29. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Keane, Jondi (2013). "Initiating Change: Architecturing the Body-Environment with Arakawa and Gins". Architectural Design. 83 (1): 76–83. doi:10.1002/ad.1528. ISSN 1554-2769.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Film & Photo Shoots – Reversible Destiny Lofts MITAKA (In Memory of Helen Keller)". Retrieved 2021-05-01.
This article "Reversible Destiny Lofts" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Reversible Destiny Lofts. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
