半世紀前に建てられた、集合住宅の一室の改修である。藩政期に大名小路であった宮城県仙台市の片平丁通りに面する地上7階建ての建物は、河岸段丘が直接河川と接した高低差のある崖地に建ち、広瀬川と青葉山が成す、仙台特有の風景を眺望できる。
既存の間取りは和室と洋間からなる4Kタイプで、南側の和室が明るく、北側の水回りは暗い、明暗のコントラストが強い状況であった。眺望を最大化して室内に取り込むため、部屋を東西に分割していた雑壁を解体すると、南側に集中していた自然光が分散され、既存躯体によって翳りを見せる、仄暗い影で填められたワンルームが現れた。これは、仕上げや建具など、もとあった空間の輪郭によって強調されていた光が、輪郭が解体されることで手掛かりを失い、光の回析が中止されたことによるものだった。古来東洋では暗さの中に餘情を見出してきたように、闇が堆積したこの空間を介し、日常で見えないものを想像し、聴こえないものに聴き耳を立てる。既存躯体の輪郭を揺さぶるような、翳りに住まうことを考えた。
日中、南窓と北窓から逆光化した眺望が翳りの中に借景として現れ、暗がりに景色だけが浮かぶ。
日没後、闇夜で部屋が充填され影ごと部屋の半分が消える。界壁は見えなくなり、どこまでも続く深淵を歩く感覚に陥る。時間に応じて闇の濃淡が刻々と変化し、日常行為に奥行きをつくる。意味的な翳りのあるこの場所を、翳間と呼ぶことにした。
施主の大きな要望は、土足で使える広い場所を用意することと、居間、寝室、水回りを含む生活空間をコンパクトにまとめることの2点であった。前者を翳間と捉え、それに対して接する線分が長くなるよう、南北方向に居間、寝室、水回りを設えた。住人が生活行為の中で必ず翳間に足を踏み入れるよう、水回りと居間を隔てる既存壁を、あえて床端部まで伸ばしている。何度も行き来される翳間は、部屋というより、ほかの場所にアクセスするためのひと続きの開口部であり、影により空間が一時停止された閉口部でもある。
翳間と居間、対比的な2つの場所から生活が展開する空間構成を鑑みたとき、虚と実を担う2役の対話から物語が進行する、夢幻能に近しさを覚えた。夢幻能では、霊的存在であるシテが現実を生きるワキの前に現れ、物語が始まる。シテを翳間、ワキを居間として捉えると、この部屋は彼方と此方の狭間、つまり、あわいの部屋ということになる。生活舞台として位置付けられた居間の床壁天井は檜合板で仕上げ、翳間との境で一時停止させる。翳りによって一時停止された居間の小口は、見せる前提で大引や野縁の間隔を設定し、化粧として見せている。いわば、意図せず露出された断面ではなく、意図的に曝露させた停面である。
檜合板による仕上げは耐久、耐水性に優れる実利的理由のほか、白色の木肌に自然光を纏わせ、翳間と対比的に明るくすることを意図したものである。場が切り替わる明示として、翳間より20cm高く床高を設定し、天井高は1.9mと極限まで低くした。これは、翳間から見た時に生活そのものが鏡板のように切り取られ、暗がりの中に浮かぶ光の背景になることを狙った操作でもある。翳間は秘め隠されていた躯体を現すことで空間の気積を最大化しつつ、光、風、行為が影の中を通り抜ける、内でも外でもある場とした。翳間の気積を大きくする操作は、既存躯体という絶対的な現実がある改修行為において虚を実にする夢幻能の視座を実空間に向ける試みでもある。
彼方と此方の狭間に映る翳り。暗がりがもつ不気味さの中に、新しい居心地を発見されたい。（髙橋雅人）
Living space in the dark where the five senses are sharpened
This is a renovation of a room in an apartment complex built half a century ago. The seven-story building faces Katahira-cho Street in Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, which was a feudal lord’s alley in the feudal era. The building is situated on a cliff with a difference in elevation where a river terrace directly meets the river, and offers a view of the unique landscape of Sendai formed by the Hirose River and Mount Aoba.
The existing floor plan is a 4K type consisting of a Japanese-style room and a Western-style room. The Japanese-style room on the south side is bright, while the bathrooms on the north side is dark, resulting in a strong contrast between light and dark. In order to maximize the view, we dismantled the walls dividing the rooms into east and west sections, and the natural light concentrated on the south side was dispersed to reveal a single room filled with dark shadows cast by the existing structure. This was due to the fact that the light, which had been emphasized by the original spatial contours such as finishes and fixtures, lost its clue when the contours were dismantled, and the diffusion of light was stopped. As in the East, where people have long ago found a sense of the subtle in the dark, this space, with its accumulated darkness, allows us to imagine what we cannot see in our daily lives and to listen to what we cannot hear. The idea was to live in the shadows that shake the contours of the existing structure.
During the day, the backlit view from the south and north windows appears as a borrowed landscape in the shadows, and only the scenery floats in the darkness.
After sunset, the room is filled with darkness and half of the room disappears with the shadows. The boundary wall disappears from view, giving the sensation of walking through an endless abyss. The shades of darkness change from moment to moment according to the time of day, creating depth in the everyday act. We call this place with semantic shadows “Shadows room”.
The client’s two major requests were to provide a spacious area that could be used with dirt floors, and to compactly organize the living space, including the living room, bedroom, and water area. The living room, bedrooms, and bathrooms are arranged in a north-south direction so that the line segment tangent to the Shadows room is long. The existing wall separating the living room from the bathrooms was deliberately extended to the edge of the floor so that the residents would always step into the Shadows room in their daily activities. Shadows room, which is visited repeatedly, is not so much a room as a series of “openings” for access to other places, and it is also a “closing” where space is paused by shadows.
In light of the spatial configuration in which life unfolds from two contrasting places, the Shadows room and the “living room,” I was reminded of the proximity to “Mugen (ghostly spirit) Noh”, where the story progresses through a dialogue between the two actors who play the roles of fiction and reality. “Mugen Noh”, the story begins when the Shite, a spiritual being, appears before the Waki, who is living in reality. If we view the Shite as the Shadows room and the Waki as the living room, this room is the space between here and there, in other words, “Awai”（a room of in-between）. The floor, walls, and ceiling of the living room, which is positioned as the stage of life, are finished with hinoki plywood, and the room is paused at the boundary with the Shadows room. The wooden edges of the living room, paused by the shadows, are shown as a finishing touch by setting the spacing of the wood stud on the assumption that they will be shown. In other words, it is not an unintentionally exposed section, but a “paused surface” that is intentionally exposed.
The hinoki plywood finish is intended not only for practical reasons, such as durability and water resistance, but also to allow natural light to illuminate the white wood surface, contrasting with the Shadows room. The floor height was set 20 cm higher than that of the Shadows room as a clear indication of the change of space, and the ceiling height was made as low as 1.9 m to the utmost limit.
This manipulation is intended to create a background of light floating in the darkness, as if life itself is cut out like a “Kagami-ita(The board with the painted pine tree is called the “Kagami-ita” (mirror board), and it is one of the Noh stage props.)” when viewed from the Shadows room. By revealing the frame, which had been hidden from view, I maximized the volume of the space, while allowing light, wind, and action to pass through the shadows, creating a place that is both inside and outside. The operation to increase the air volume between the shadows is also an attempt to turn the characteristics of the “Mugen Noh” to the real space, where the absolute reality of the existing frame is the falsity in the renovation process. The shadows reflected in the space between here and there. We hope you will discover a new sense of comfort in the eeriness of the darkness. (Masato Takahashi)
【翳りの間】
所在地：宮城県仙台市
用途：共同住宅・集合住宅
クライアント：個人
竣工：2024年
設計：髙橋雅人建築設計事務所
担当：髙橋雅人
施工：共栄ハウジング
撮影：首藤耀平
工事種別：リノベーション
構造：SRC造
延床面積：84.24m²
設計期間：2023.10-2024.02
施工期間：2024.02-2024.05
【Pause shadows】
Location: Sendai-shi, Miyagi, Japan
Principal use: Housing complex
Client: Individual
Completion: 2024
Architects: Masato Takahashi Architecture
Design team: Masato Takahashi
Contruction: Kyouei Housing
Photographs: Yohei Shuto
Construction type: Renovation
Main structure: SRC
Total floor area: 84.24m²
Design term: 2023.10-2024.02
Construction term: 2024.02-2024.05
