Press Release
Silver A' Design Award in Architecture, Building and Structure Design Goes to Murakoshi House by Hiroki Watanabe
The international grand jury of the 2022 - 2023 A' Design Award & Competition recognizes Hiroki Watanabe for architecture, building and structure design
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 20, 2023 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that Murakoshi House by Hiroki Watanabe, designed for S Design Farm, has been granted the Silver A' Design Award in the Architecture, Building and Structure Design category. The award was conferred within the 2022 - 2023 A' Design Award & Competition and was determined through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who scored anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
About the Silver A' Design Award
The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.
About Murakoshi House
An urban house integrating floodwaters into its design. This house with a monolithic facade and a drive-through garage with a high foundation is situated on a pentagonal corner lot that is expected to be crowded with pedestrians. The design features a planar and cross-sectional openness to allow light and wind to flow into the interior while also taking into account the convenience of people and cars while deflecting water. This work explores a simple and sensible approach to future urban housing with a focus on natural disasters.
About Hiroki Watanabe
With experience gained from working at both a house manufacturer and design firm, this individual has designed numerous homes and vacation homes in Tokyo, earning multiple international awards. Their strength lies in capturing the unique appeal of each location and creating rich living spaces from different perspectives. Their approach involves discovering the charm that can only be found in a particular place, identifying invisible connections, and leveraging existing elements. They prioritize qualities that cannot be measured by numbers, simplicity, clarity, and logical design.
Award Record
Hiroki Watanabe is a winner of 1 A' Design Award, including this recognition.
About the A' Architecture, Building and Structure Design Award
The A' Architecture Design Award is an international architectural design competition recognizing good architectural designs by best architects worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to architectural design studios, building contractors, structural engineering firms and architecture and design consultants from all countries. Typical entries include skyscrapers, museums, residential buildings, commercial complexes, educational institutions and religious structures. The awarded architectural projects are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/architecture
About A' Design Award & Competition
Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/147063
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/147063
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!147063
- Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/340240
- Further Information from the Laureate: http://bit.ly/3EojQz0
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Murakoshi House
- Function
- House
- Category
- Architecture, Building and Structure Design
- Discipline
- Spatial Design
- Industry
- Architecture
- Colors
- Dark Slate Gray, Cornflower Blue, Steel Blue and Light Steel Blue
- Images
- 5
- Client
- S Design Farm
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Hiroki Watanabe
- Country
- Japan
- Recognition
- Silver A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2022 - 2023
- Design ID
- #147063
Credits
- Image Credits
- Photographer Yasutaka Kojima, Variations, 2022.; Photographer Koichi Torimura, Variations, 2022.
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- An urban house integrating flood waters into its design. The house, with its drive-through garage using a high foundation and monolithic facade that takes into account sight lines and sound, was designed to achieve safety and comfort for the client while creating a duality of open public and introverted private living spaces that maintain an appropriate sense of distance from the surrounding environment. This work explores a simple, yet make sense, future urban housing with an eye toward natural disasters.
- Inspiration
- Safety and Comfort from Openness. The site is a pentagonal shaped site facing a three-way street with a lot of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, and adjacent to a waterway that was predicted to flood, making it a complex intersection of various elements. Therefore, we created a three-dimensional openness to the elements of light, wind, people, cars, and water that surround the site, allowing light and wind to flow into the interior and creating an architecture that dodges water while considering convenience for people and cars.
- Research
- In order to reduce running costs and the burden on the global environment, the insulation performance was set to a high level (insulation grade 6), and a level of almost no heating was implemented even in winter by minimizing the number of windows, using a Ua value of 0.37, using heat exchange ductless ventilation, and thorough air sealing measures.
- Challenge
- The Murakoshi House faced the challenge of how to create a safe and comfortable place to live, given its low elevation, the risk of flooding due to its location in a valley, and the dense surrounding area. Considering the effects of recent climate change and rising electricity costs, the key point was how to create comfort, and architectural innovations and facilities were planned to withstand these factors.
- Realization and Technology
- In order to maximize the building-to-land ratio, a pentagonal plan configuration was chosen to match the site shape, and the cross-sectional configuration of the second floor and loft was selected in consideration of height restrictions, fire prevention regulations, and structural planning. To minimize the impact on the building in the event of flooding, the first floor was planned with a high foundation. The space was designed to make the most of the site conditions.
- Operation and Interaction
- Murakoshi House faced the challenge of how to create a safe and comfortable place to live, given its low elevation, the risk of flooding in the valley, and the densely populated surrounding area. In addition, taking into consideration the effects of recent climate change and rising electricity costs, the key point was how to create comfort, and architectural innovations and facilities were planned to withstand these factors.
- Project Duration and Location
- The design period for the Murakoshi House is six months, from November 2020 to April 2021. The construction period is seven months, from May 2021 to December 2021. The planned site is located in Ota Ward, Tokyo, Japan. It is located on the bottom of a mortar-shaped valley that stretches to the south of Senzoku Ike Pond.
- Specifications
- The building use is a private residence for a couple. The construction type is new construction. The structure is wooden, two stories above ground with a high foundation and a loft. The site area is 73.92m2 and the total floor area is 81.73m2.
- Keywords
- House, Urban, Flood waters, High foundation, Openness, Safety
