- Re:Rental -

Collective housing in Japan traces its origins to the postwar supply of public housing complexes, developed in response to a nationwide housing shortage.With the country’s rapid economic growth, the focus gradually shifted from quantity to quality. Housing eventually became institutionalized as a “commodity,” and a formal bifurcation between owner-occupied and rental housing was fixed.While the former came to be associated with the right to freely modify and personalize one’s dwelling, the latter remained embedded in impermanence.

Even today, as condominium renovations have taken root as a mainstream model for urban living, rental housing still imposes strict limitations.Drilling holes in the wall, for instance, is often prohibited, and the tenant’s relationship with space remains largely passive.Since changing the layout is virtually impossible, households are frequently compelled to relocate whenever their family composition shifts—rental living becomes a series of temporary residences rather than a long-term home.

This project explores how to construct spatial order and a sense of inhabitation within these institutional constraints—without fixing anything to the existing structure.By integrating multiple functions—gallery wall, bench, sofa, dining table, office desk—into a single, cohesive unit, the design positions itself at a scale between architecture and furniture.

The unit requires no screws, embedded joints, or any form of permanent installation.Instead, it relies on a broad footprint and its own weight to generate frictional resistance, thereby achieving physical stability.It proposes a construction logic in which the very act of being placed, not fixed, defines space.

More than a single piece of furniture, this structural body gathers overlapping layers of sightlines, movement, and occupation, serving as the gravitational center of the dwelling.To the resident, it becomes a kind of fixed star—a source of spatial gravity.The rhythms of daily life orbit around it, much like trajectories shaped by light and gravity.

This intermediate entity—neither fully furniture nor fully architecture—bundles together the multiple layers that constitute domestic life, while also allowing for reinterpretation through the lens of each occupant.In response to the inherent limitations of rental housing, this project seeks to propose a new architectural gadget, one that offers an alternative potential for how we dwell.