Most architects treat circulation as wasted area that should be minimized and mechanically neutralized.
In this issue, I look at how Ryue Nishizawa turns circulation into a climatic experience instead.
Through House in Shochukichu and Moriyama House, I explore how intermediate spaces can expand comfort not by controlling climate absolutely, but by creating opportunities for adaptation.
I’ll then share how I connect these ideas to my own work.
Enjoy, and as always, thanks for your support,
1. The Sketch
Original photo by Hisao Suzuki
(El Croquis)
The House in Shochukichu thickens the boundary between street and home.
Its circulation space becomes neither fully inside nor outside, but something in between: a contemporary reinterpretation of the toriniwa, the transitional passage spaces found in traditional Japanese townhouses.
This space is not simply a corridor. It behaves more like a private urban room. The inhabitant gradually transitions from the city into the domestic interior rather than crossing a rigid thermal and spatial threshold.
In a dense neighborhood of Tokyo, Nishizawa creates what feels less like a hallway and more like a tiny private plaza.
Tori-niwa Space
(Original photo by the Office of Ryue Nishizawa)
Interior Space
(Original photo by the Office of Ryue Nishizawa)
This idea echoes observations made by Jane Jacobs and Jan Gehl, both of whom argued that cities function best when people move through gradients of public and private space rather than abrupt separations.
These intermediate conditions help us situate ourselves spatially and psychologically.
They expand the territory we informally occupy and identify with.
If Shochukichu thickens the threshold between inside and outside, Moriyama House dissolves it almost entirely. Here circulation doesn’t really exist. At least not in the common sense we tend to refer to it. It has been pushed out into this carefully calibrated “negative” space.
(Original photo by the Office of Ryue Nishizawa)
Nishizawa has been careful with the placement of the different volumes. He’s not looking at the space between these as the “left over”. He’s masterfully treating these to expand and contract this exterior to accommodate the different uses while also balancing intimacy.
The houses forces you to experience the outdoors.
(Original photo by the Office of Ryue Nishizawa)
The problem I see with this “house” lies within the concept itself. As much as I like the idea of being intentional with the circulation as he is here, the underlying premise of having each volume work independent of the other breaks it’s strength. What the architect calls boxes, I call units. The concept is powerful and it clearly inspired the Seijo Town houses done by Sejima.
In both projects, circulation is not leftover space. It becomes environmental mediation, where climate is not controlled but negotiated.