Drab, repetitive, formulaic, plain: some of the more polite adjectives that might be applied to most condominium design in Japan.
Welcome to the exception: Maison AoAo, completed in March in Tokyo's Kichijoji district, is a collection of 13 condominiums built around a central courtyard and featuring an unusual series of graceful steel rings that protrude from its concrete facade. The building is the result of a collaboration between one of the nation's most sought-after architects, 53-year-old Jun Aoki, and one of its most respected sculptors, Noe Aoki, who is two years his junior. What brought these two unrelated Aokis together was a client with particularly artistic tastes: Michiko Fukui.
"I wanted an architect who could create a building in which a good relationship could develop between the building and any works of art you put inside it," Fukui told The Japan Times last month in describing how the project began.