Screen Façade Design: Thom Faulders, with Proces2 in San Francisco Building Design: Studio M/Hajime Masubuchi in Tokyo

The project creates an exterior building skin for a new four story multi-family dwelling unit with professional photography studios in Tokyo, Japan. Located in the Kitamagome Ota-ku district, the site was previously occupied by the owner's family with a residence uniquely wrapped by a layer of dense vegetation. Since the entire site was razed to accommodate construction for the new larger development, the design invents an architectural system that performs with similar attributes to the demolished green strip and creates a new atmospheric space of protection.

Conceived as a thin interstitial environment, the articulated densities of the porous and open-celled meshwork are layered in response to the inner workings of the building's program. AirSpace is a zone where the artificial blends with nature: sunlight is refracted along its metallic surfaces; rainwater is channeled away from exterior walkways via capillary action; and interior views are shielded behind its variegated and foliage-like cover.