Flip This House

1. http://www.century21.com/property/810-locust-street-roselle-park-nj-07204-ERA3217881
2. 810 Locust Street Roselle Park, NJ 07204
3. $179,128

Architect Project - Personal History

     My name is Kazuo Shinohara and I am a modern Japanese architect. I was born on April 2, 1925 in Shizuoka, Japan. When I was first heading off to college, I planned on majoring in Architecture to revolutionize the idea of modern Japanese architecture. I have been active since 1925, designing over 60 residential buildings and a few commercial/public buildings as well. I studied at TIT (Tokyo Institute of Technology) and graduated in 1953, later on becoming a professor in 1970 to teach other generations about different architectural ideas. The idea of modern Japanese came from a group of other Japanese architects, including myself, after World War II. We believed in building for the future to leave the past behind. There is nothing specific that is included in this style; it is all just ideas drawn out and later designed in a greater scale. It can be intricate, organized, random, etc., as long as it has very little to do with the well-known traditional style. Overall, I am capable of designing any structure that is put on my shoulders, as long as the idea is there.

Architect Project - Description

Kazuo Shinohara designed a museum that I used as the basis of what I would design in terms of his architectural style. I decided to design an art gallery. The art gallery was designed with intricate shapes and materials to coincide with Shinohara’s ideas. The front of the building I decided to make mostly glass to let in natural light as well as the side curved walls of the top of the building. With this, I used his idea of combining metal and glass by making metal bars to separate sections of the glass. Most of the building was made with metal material, which I was very skeptical about because not a lot of structures are built mainly with metal. The sole purpose of this building is mentioned in the building type—an art gallery. In order to figure out certain dimensions, I searched up other art galleries and estimated dimensions in order to fit the standard qualities of an art gallery. Overall, the design was very simple and ordinary but it stands out from other gallery structures because of the certain materials I used.

Kazuo Shinohara

Kazuo Shinohara, a member of a well-known architecture movement in Japan, designs modern Japanese structures; more specifically, modern homes. He was born in Shizuoka, Japan on April 2, 1925, later on went to study at TIT (Tokyo Institute of Technology) and graduated in 1953. With his new found education he became a professor in 1970. He believed in changing the idea of Japanese architecture (traditional) and making it modern in terms of leaving the past behind (world war two) and creating a better future. Still sticking with traditional aspects, such as color, organization, and balance, Kazuo implemented these with his physical idea of how modern Japanese structures should look, but mainly feel. He accomplished this throughout his number of works, mostly residential, all around Japan.
Some examples of his work would be Japan Ukiyo-e Museum in Matsumoto, K2 Building in Osaka, and the Umbrella House. The Umbrella House out of all shows his traditional Japanese cultural input considering the color and balance chosen for this design. He was awarded the AIJ grand prize for his achievements in influencing modern Japanese architecture in 2005. He then passed away on July 15, 2006, later on being commemorated in 2010 with the special Golden Lion award.

Cabin Retreat

For this project, we were assigned to design a cabin for three women keeping in mind every single aspect that they asked for. I built my cabin in a very ordinary but also modern way. Keeping in mind the environment, I designed the cabin with not just earthy colors but also light colors. The kitchen was built as an island kitchen with a light yellow color with a dark wood to match. For the living room, I intially made it dark grey but then thought it was too dark for a living space. Then, I changed it to a light blue and added and fireplace in favor for the women. Because of the small amount of space, I decided to make two bedroom with one of them having two beds so two of them would share. Each room was colored with a somewhat dark color considering they would only be there for sleeping. Then for the bathroom, I chose very soft and light colors to brighten up the room. As for the outside, I really kept in mind the environment and so i planted various amounts of plants and a few evergreen trees to give it that "cabin retreat, outdoors" feeling. I then built a deck that extended from two sides of the house in order for the residents to relax and enjoy the great view of the lake and the mountain, away from all the noise of a busy street. Overall, i made sure to keep in mind what the women wanted with my own personal touch to convince them that my cabin was very well designed and perfect towards what they wanted.

Treehouse Design

On the tree house unit, we were instructed to create a small scaled tree house using many materials at our disposal, such as foam board, cardboard, balsa wood, string, and many other materials. Me and my partners tree house was built out of balsa wood, foam board, and printed exterior walls and roof material. There are two entrances made out of string and wood and all wood. The tree house was supported by two sticks in order for it to not fall over. The most difficult part of this whole process was creating the roof because our “tree” stuck right through the whole house so I had to cut around the “tree” in order for the roof to fit just right. All in all, the house came out really well, some parts better than others, and for the most part met the requirements that the family requested of us.

Famous Buildings Update 24

We have completed the project, missing a couple minor details but nothing too extreme. At the most, we were able to make the basic parts of the project but were not able to get into a lot of detail. Both me and my partner now know how to manage time for future projects such as this.