Tokyo’s Reverse Destiny lofts
|New York-based Japanese artist Shusaku Arakawa designed this small apartment block in 2005 in the Tokyo suburb of Mitaka in conjunction with his poet partner, Madeline Gins. According to the SushiLog: ‘Painted in eye-catching blue, pink, red, yellow and other bright colors, the building resembles the indoor playgrounds that attract toddlers at fast-food restaurants. Inside, each apartment features a dining room with a grainy, surfaced floor that slopes erratically, a sunken kitchen and a study with a concave floor. Electric switches are located in unexpected places on the walls so you have to feel around for the right one. A glass door to the veranda is so small you have to bend to crawl out’.
‘You constantly lose balance and gather yourself up, grab onto a column and occasionally trip and fall. Even worse, there’s no closet space; residents will have to find a way to live there, since the apartment offers only a few solutions. “You’ll learn to figure it out,” says Arakawa. Ten minutes of stumbling around is enough to send even the healthiest young person over the edge. Arakawa says that’s precisely the point. “[The apartment] makes you alert and awakens instincts, so you’ll live better, longer and even forever,” says the artist’.
Tagged: awesome architecture, cool architecture, Shusaku Arakawa, Tokyo's Reverse Destiny lofts
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YOU'RE SAYING (3)
qB said | 3 July, 2009
Instead of quoting Sushi & Sensibility, I think you meant the Newsweek article they copied and pasted from.
jennifer said | 26 October, 2011
COOL! 
HAVE YOUR SAY
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Hal said | 7 April, 2009
Sounds like the Oak Grove Apartments.