House Week #6
Comments: 3
There are few right-thinking people who didn’t develop a morbid fear of concrete and pastel colours during the 1980s. Nothing screamed “yuppie takeover” quite like salmon pink, an insidious colour with nefarious psychological effects. The gentrification of neighbourhoods could be mapped in direct correlation to its prevalence.
The 80’s saw the rise of what can only be called the Fuck-You School of architecture, characterised by the excessive use of unadorned moulded concrete. The rigidly isometric world view expressed by the severe angles and general lack of warmth was a signature feature of the decade. Greed was good, and you were either a “winner” or a “loser.” Who needed welcoming textures and proportions when you had your wealth to keep you warm?
Some things don’t change, and the use of salmon pink to signify a complacent comfort and ersatz discrimination is one of them. Inevitably, salmon pink has infiltrated my neighbourhood.
I live in Setagaya, the largest and western-most of Tokyo’s 23 wards. There’s a lot of money in some parts of Setagaya, but my area is not (or at least wasn’t) one one of them. It’s a university town, home to the main campus of the Tokyo University of Agriculture. Where I live was farmland 50 years ago, and people I know in their 60’s who went to same school my daughter now attends talk of seeing badgers and foxes and snakes and hawks and owls in the stands of forest that used to border the school. The creek that ran alongside the western edge of the playground was concreted over to make way for a road and must now obey its gravitational imperative underground where it no longer muddies the feet of the local kids.
All things change, and we can’t pretend they don’t, but this area is on the verge of one of those epochal changes that happen every couple of generations or so. It has been discovered as A Nice Place To Live, and the laws of irony being what they are, the rush by housing companies to develop the area must now necessitate the dismantling of the things that made it worth discovering in the first place.
This apartment complex is just being completed a couple of blocks away. In the photo you can see that the front door has been hinged but not unwrapped yet. Along the back of it, where tiny balconies jut out like afterthoughts from the dour block, a deep red wood has been used in the detailing to try to add some warmth. I couldn’t get a good shot of it, but it looks like a ginger toupee on a mule.
It must be constantly frustrating to architects here (and most places, I guess) that no matter how well you may think you’ve finished off the lines of building, no one will ever see them as you intended:
The unrelieved blight that is overhead powerlines probably deserves a series all its own. But let’s not go there now. Please.
These pastel beauties below recently went on sale and were immediately snapped up. I had a copy of the flyer that the real estate company sent out which included the floor plans. I can’t seem to find it anymore, but trust me when I say you don’t get a whole lot of space for your money.
And just how much money are we talking about? These three sub-houses occupy the space formally reserved for a single dwelling. Granted that the blocks around here are maybe a little larger than you’d usually find because of the origins of the neighbourhood, but we’re still not talking about a whole lot of space. The cheapest of the three sold for about $320,000 (US) with the most expensive one (not shown properly in the picture) costing almost $400,000.
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Posted to Architecture • 2002.11.09 (Sat) • 17:09
Comments
Posted by red 2002.11.10, 09:40
hm… 400k? those would go equally as fast if they were in Manhattan. doesn’t seem like a bad deal, but i guess that kind of depends. people here in NYC pay like 300k for spaces probably half the size of one of those units (and with half the design inspiration). how close to the nearest chain store? ;)
Posted by jh 2002.11.10, 11:50
Red — Where I live is more like New Jersey! Manhattan would be Aoyama or Azabu, somewhere like that. I can well imagine that Manhattan prices are through the roof, but what you’re saying is still kind of shocking. Guess I won’t be moving to Manhattan for a while.
Posted by Red 2002.11.11, 04:56
what’s wild is that prices in Brooklyn are pretty crazy too. neighborhoods like Park Slope and Boerum Hill, and even Williamsburg and Greenpoint are far from cheap. the only difference between here and the city it seems is that you get an extra coat closet and extra wall that divides your kitchen from your living room. haha.
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