About

About

Outline

Completion
April 1964
Location
Jingumae 2-chome, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Structure
2 floors underground and 7 floors above ground are reinforced concrete (1st floor alone is reinforced steel frame concrete)
Total units
45 units (40 residences, 3 maid rooms, 2 shops)
Ground contact area
1018.29㎡
Total floor area
5876.56㎡
Exclusive area
54.02〜126.39㎡(maid rooms/14.77㎡)
Architect
Kanzo Ishida (President of Kowa Shoji Co., Ltd.)
Design/Architecture
Eiji Hotta Architectural Design Office
Facilities
Sakurai Architectural Equipment Research Institute
Construction/Architecture
Taisei Coporation
Electrical equipment
Kanto Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
Facilities
Sanki Engineering Co., Ltd.
Construction period
June 1963 - May 1964 (11 months)

Architect/Eiji Hotta

Architect of Villa Bianca Design
January 21, 1928 - October 11, 1999

An article written by Hotta about the time when Villa Bianca was designed was published in the Architectural Magazine of the Architectural Institute of Japan.

He wrote: "The client (Kanzo Ishida) had a very high level of understanding of architecture (including the details of regulations, structure, equipment). He envisioned an increasing number of people wanting to think of their apartments as their home base, rather than just a temporary residence, and this determined the character and quality of the buildings."

Client: Kanzo Ishida

Client for Villa Bianca
1928 - March 2008

When Kanzo Ishida was 15 years old during World War II, he was assigned to a special attack unit in Kyushu as a volunteer. He was only 17 years old when the defeat of the Japanese army in August 1945 brought him back to burnt-out Tokyo.

After graduating from university, he established Kowa Shoji in 1950 and built a 500㎡ reinforced concrete hotel in Shinjuku with four floors above ground and one basement floor. However, in 1960, he closed the hotel and started running restaurants and selling single-family homes. Believing that the era of apartment complexes would come in the future, he decided to build Villa Bianca, a high-class apartment complex on land in Harajuku, with the theme of "value that never changes".

Of all the architects he met, he found that Eiji Hotta, who had the best taste and asked him to design the building and Hotta became independent and worked with him. They went on a field trip to Europe and America together, but there was nothing that they wanted to use as a reference.

In order to create something completely new by themselves, Ishida visited Hotta's office almost every day. Over the course of two years, they explored innovative and functional designs and carefully selected materials, aiming at achieving a high-class apartment complex. They worked hard to create a design for Villa Bianca that embodied their ideals.
Taisei Corporation took charge of the construction, and it was completed in just 11 months.

Exterior

"There are several points that make this apartment complex unique, the first of which is the perfect match between the floor plan and the structural plan.
Due to the irregularly-shaped site, it was difficult to arrange a regular plan. In the planar system that was adopted, the exterior was constructed in a flying geese pattern using a 3.5 m square grid that blends easily into the site. (Omitted) The floor planning system based on this grid configuration is what this building is all about.

All the walls that make up the plane, from the boundary walls between the dwelling units to the partition walls within dwelling units, are placed on this grid. Naturally, the structure also faithfully utilizes the grid system, with a load-bearing wall in the center and wall pillars around the perimeter, creating an open living space with daylight. Implementing this system thoroughly will put a large terrace of 3.5 meters square in place. No hesitation has been shown in planning a terrace with plant boxes.

Another feature that makes this building unique is the repeated overlaps of two types of floor plans: one for even-numbered floors and one for odd-numbered floors. In addition, a unique exterior is created by alternating large glass walls around the perimeter with deep terraces that create shadows.” (Quoted from Ikuo Seita's "Smile Salon" No. 62)

Structural Plan

“We placed beams with a width of 300 mm on all floors in a grid of 3.5 meters square on the floor plan, and planned the structural elements supporting the floors to fit within this grid width of 300 mm. In other words, we installed a strong load-bearing wall in the center to increase torsional rigidity and wall pillars with a width of 300 x 900 mm were placed around the building (Figures 1 and 2).

All of the building has 800 mm beams, the same floor height, aluminum sashes on the exterior walls, and aluminum or glass curtain walls, with different layouts for odd-numbered and even-numbered floors. The structural design was created with the assistance of Tsuyoshi Muto.”
(Quoted from Eiji Hotta's "Architectural Culture" No. 214)

Equipment

The first basement floor has a trunk room and a shop (the entrance is on the Meiji Street side), and the second basement floor has trunk rooms and machinery rooms.

At the time of completion, it had central heating and cooling systems, and a refrigerator, cooling water pump, chilled water pump, boiler, heavy oil tank, and heat exchanger were installed in the basement machinery rooms. Today, resembling a block of iron, this huge equipment remains.

*References
Magazines
Eiji Hotta, "Future construction design system (What should the future construction design system be?)" Architectural Magazine, No. 938, Architectural Institute of Japan, 1964
Eiji Hotta "Special Feature: Residence Villa Bianca" "Architectural Culture" No. 214 Shokokusha 1964
Kanzo Ishida, "(Special Feature: Housing - Overview of the 1960s and Prospects for the 70s) Condominium Prospects and Villa Series," Architecture and Society, Vol. 52, No. 1, Architectural Institute of Japan, 1971
Keiichiro Fujisaki "In search of the perfect home. What the creator of the "Billa Series" left behind" "Architectural Journal, No. 1260, Architectural Journal 2016
Ikuo Seita, "Rediscovering Homes: Villa Bianca", "Sumai Salon" No. 62, Housing Research Foundation, 2002
Fumiko Arai "Laws for preserving vintage condominium value Case 1 Villa Bianca" "Living in the city center" October 2010
"Apartment Housing VILLA BIANCA" "Architecture" August 1964