Until the 1970s, basic wooden apartments were the standard offering. People live in these anonymous capsule dwellings temporarily, moving out within a few years, and pursuing an existence more or less isolated from traditional group-based society. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Concerned with the idea that the city was becoming an anonymous place to live, Coelacanth responded by endeavouring to assimilate individuals into a larger whole. Thus this one-room mansion should not be seen as part of the city, but as an autonomous whole which itself simulates the arbitrary process by which Tokyo has developed. Each architect within the group contributed a different idea and their designs were collaged together without mediation.
Corridors are analogous to twisting streets and rooms to houses.
Appropriately, the block is set amid densely packed surrounding buildings of dissimilar materials and types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The fourth floor was designed as the ground level of the city and the wide terraces are approximately level with the surrounding roof heights. The fifth and sixth floors are set back to avoid blocking light to buildings to the north and the diverse shapes of the rooms form a skyline 'rooftop village'. A skylight is set in the high ceiling of each of the irregularly planned rooms. Kitchens are minimally equipped, with water pipes left exposed.