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In Kuma's works, plastic sheets are often used together with Japanese paper (washi), which, while protected from damage by the more durable plastic, gives a fine texture and modulated translucency to the surface. Lit from behind, the sheets start to glow so that the entire building becomes a glowing volume of light.

The Plastic House, designed for a photographer and his mother, a writer, is located in a densely built residential area. Its simple form was largely determined by statutory requirements and building lines.

The two-story structure includes a photo studio in the basement and an open-air studio on the flat roof, which affords a view over the city. This space is also used for parties as well as for tea ceremonies, which are held in the rear of the roof terrace for friends of the client.

Various areas of the house are open to the public — the mother's room in the basement is a small antique museum, and there is a constant flow of people in and out of the photo studio. The open outdoor space on the ground floor behind the building is used as a tearoom. The deck of this space, made of plastic bars, is situated over a large light well that provides daylight to the basement.

The house features large areas of glazing on the ground floor, but most parts of the building were made of FRP in order to achieve the desired qualities of lightness and openness. This material was also seen as a fitting response to the chaotic urban surroundings.

Kuma was attracted to the opportunity of experimenting with different kinds of plastic and developing new details for this material. The walls facing the street and the garden are finished internally and externally with plastic panels, with an intermediate layer of translucent thermal insulation.

The bedrooms are thus linked to the outside world without suffering any loss of privacy. Similarly, the plastic bars of the garden fence, the veranda, and the balcony provide both screening and exposure. Many other details, from the staircase treads to the fixings, were also executed in plastic, while, for pragmatic reasons, the load-bearing structure was made of steel.

Many Qualities of Plastic

FRP is .15 inches (4 millimeters) thick and comes in various shapes. It is a unique material that sometimes looks like rice paper and sometimes like bamboo, depending on the quality of the contained fibers. In his design, Kuma paid special attention to the changing visual quality of this material; butyl rubber and plastic screws were selected for the construction, so as not to diminish the lightness and translucency of the plastic.

The design for the Plastic House can be seen in relation to Kuma's quest to escape from the massiveness of the concrete box. As he formulated it:

"If I were to describe the architecture of the 20th century with one word, it would be "concrete." Its freedom and universality fit the 20th century so well that other local methods of construction were abandoned. Moreover, the strength of the solid mass achieved in transformation from thick liquid substance suited an era that desired monumentality and security of privacy. Therefore to seek for a substitute [material] is not a mere formal proposal but an attempt to suggest a principle of living that replaces the fundamentals of the 20th century — freedom (of course, in the sense of the era), strength, and security."

As a result of Kuma's treatment of materials — bringing them to life while increasing the tactility of their surfaces — his architectural spaces become endowed with a sensuous quality not unlike the one experienced in traditional sukiya-style architecture.

His use of slats is reminiscent of wooden latticework (kooshi) and bamboo mesh and curtain (sudare), which are common traditional Japanese devices that mediate between inside and outside while providing privacy. Indeed, Kuma is among those architects in Japan who are capable of successfully blending the best of their long-standing Japanese aesthetic sensibilities with those engendered by contemporary life experiences and the latest high technologies.

We note that this discussion of Kuma's pellucid dwelling demonstration does not address potential health questions related to resin-intensive construction. Those questions need to find robust answers before the demonstration could be appropriately multiplied. On the other hand, if such answers could be found, might the extreme water-resistance of such construction find application in areas of predictable inundation? — Editor

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Botond Bognar is professor of architecture at the University of Illinois. He is the author of numerous books on Japanese architecture, including The Japan Guide.

This article is excerpted from Kengo Kuma: Selected Works, copyright © 2005, available from Princeton Architectural Press and at Amazon.com.

SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE The Plastic House in Tokyo, designed by Kengo Kuma. Photo: T. Hata Plastic House courtyard. Photo: Botond Bognar First-floor living, dining, and kitchen/ studio areas. Photo: T. Hata Plastic House floor plans. From top to bottom: basement, first floor, second floor, roof. Image: Kengo Kuma Sunken courtyard under the plastic louvers. Photo: T. Hata Plastic louvers and deck over the sunken court. Photo: Fujitsuka Mitsumasa Kengo Kuma: Selected Works. Image: Princeton Architectural Press   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.