Instructive modeling #3 : Paper House by Shigeru Ban
Learn to model. Learn from the model.
Following my previous “instructive modeling” posts about Renzo Piano’s Menil Collection and Tadao Ando’s Utsubo Park House, here are my 10 practical architectural lessons from Shigeru Ban’s Paper House 3D model.
If you’re interested inthe step-by-step making of the Paper house 3d model (in Sketchup) and renderings (in Enscape and Unreal Engine), you can check out my previous post.
10 practical architecture lessons from the Paper House model
This was a rather simple project to model, considering the small size of the house and the repetitiveness of many elements.
However, there surely were a lot of deep thoughts and intentions from the architect that are very particular to this project, and that make its ‘simplicity’ so iconic. It’s kind of hard to pinpoint and explain exactly how this project works and succeeds on a deep level, which is what I am not going to do.
So instead, let’s keep track of a few down-to-earth architectural teachings specific to this house :
- Simple house dimensions
- How to use paper tubes as columns
- Hiding the structure in plain sight
- Super Sliding door system
- Lab tests for paper resistance
- No Walls
- Another kind of flat roof
- Terraces for surface extensions
- Make the South façade face a forest
- Draw custom matching furniture
Subjective list, obviously non exhaustive. Simple things to remember later while thinking about this particular project.
Lesson n°1 : Simple house dimensions
The whole interior surface of the house fits into a very nice 10×10 meters square (pretty much). This makes it pretty easy to remember : a house of 100 m² with a square floorplan
With the outside terraces, it reaches 140m².
Lesson n°2 : How to use paper tubes as columns
The paper house is built upon a total of 128 paper tubes columns, forming an S shape in the middle of the square plan. Each tube has a 280 mm diameter, and a 15 mm thickness.
In order to make the model of the house, I didn’t want to overlook how exactly those many paper tubes were rooted into the floor.
It took me a little investigation to find some pictures of the tiny wooden cross-shaped skeleton hidden within the base of the tube, that was the part actually anchored to the foundations.
The sets of 4×3 metal bolts on the side of each paper tubes, necessary to maintain it properly, are aligned with the wooden skeleton. While modeling and placing every tube, I realized that the direction in which each skeleton (and then tube) was placed had to be very precise in order for the bolts not to touch each other from one tube to the other.
If you pay attention to the actual pictures of the house, you’ll notice the bolts are carefully avoiding one another. That’s ont of the things you can notice when you’re in t he process of modeling it.
Lesson n°3 : Hiding the structure in plain sight
There are 128 paper tubes columns in the whole house.
Only ten of them are carrying vertical forces in the structure while the rest carry the lateral stress due to wind and earthquakes. It means that those 10, who are impossible to differentiate in the house, are well hidden amongst the others.
Also, the smalls measurements being the same for each one, and it allows the architect to multiply it to 128 while giving the overall result a very simple and light feeling.
Lesson n°4 : Super sliding door system
How does the house close itself ? since it appears always completely open on the sides.
By looking precisely, there are a set of 5 rails that go along the 4 sides of the house, those rails make way for 5 doors on each side to slide wherever you want, to give either complete closure or complete openness of the whole.
The climate in the area the house is built must play its part in the relatively small thermal insulation the doors have, but it seems to work this way for Shigeru (when he lives there).
We’ll just keep in mind the preciseness of the doors’ rails and the way they go round the house with a crenelated pattern in each corner.
Lesson n°5 : Lab test for paper resistance
In 1995, the use of paper tube was kind of groundbreaking at the time and that material wasn’t fully allowed to use in the structure side of construction.
The architect and its engineering team had then to make a series of resistance tests in a laboratory (in the university of Waseda, using rudimentary equipement) to prove it could sustain the weight, the side effort, and so on, to be then certified usable for its intended purpose of structural columns.
This is a good reminder that if the material you wish to use (for any reason whatsoever) in you project isn’t really certified at the time, there is always a way to prove that it can be used how you cant it to be, by setting up a series of expreiment tests in a lab.
Be sure to get yourself good engineers when you do that, it woud surely help too.
Lesson n°6 : No walls
Weirdly, there are no walls anywhere in this house, only :
- Paper tubes aligned as a wall, to separate the living area and the ‘outer’ corridor leading to the bathroom and the restroom,
- One big paper tube that defines the toilet area
- Sliding doors between interior and exterior
This means the level of intimacy needed in this particular project doesn’t require walls as physical separation. Maybe because the house is supposed to be occupied by one single person in a somewhat isolated environment.
Only one swing door for the toilet (thanks for that) but not even one for the bathroom.
Lesson n°7 : Another kind of flat roof
Even if it’s not visible in any picture of the actual house, the flat roof seems to be ornamented with a series of tilted slats all over it. The only place it’s shown is in the axonometric view. What could be the point of those slats ?
My guess is it that those metallic slats, probably painted white, give the overall look a unified white color (for those who look at the house from above for instance) over a black asphalt roof, in a cleaner and more dynamic manner.
This reason kinda sucks, if you have a better one feel free to share it in the comments …
Lesson n°8 : Terraces for surfaces extensions
Although the house is 10 meters by 10 meters, it does seem a little larger in the exterior shots.
That’s because the ground floor is extended on the four sides of the house by rectangular terraces, in white wood, making it look like the ground spreads further than the roof.
By doing so, they also help to mask the foundations and terrain irregularities, now hidden from sight far under the terraces. All you see is white flat floors and almost nothing under them.
Besides making the access easier from the outside ground, it helps connect the interior without the use of a wall or a door.
This device can be also seen as a way to recreate the japanese notion of engawa, a space in between the inside and the outside, by which you enter the house in this case, in a very contemporary and disguised manner.
Lesson n°9 : Make the South façade face a forest
From what I understand in my research for this project, the side of the house that is facing the nearby forest is the south side. This is also the only side that the living room is open towards.
Usually, you would think it’s not a good idea to face south (and the sun all day) for you living room area, but in this case it seems that the house being so close to a rich forest, uses the trees as a solar protection that aren’t even part of the house design.
Put like that, that idea does seem a lot more interesting, and the view of the forest even more so.
On the other end, the east terrace should be completely open on the outside with a clear view on (I guess) the Yamanake lake.
Lesson n°10 : Draw custom matching furniture
The design of the paper house speaks in simplicity, in the use of very limited materials and shapes (cylindrical tubes, flat doors/ground/roof).
It would have been weird to integrate in the house a multitude of furniture that use a completely different set of materials or shapes.
That’s why in any picture of the project you’ll see, there is nothing else showing other than a couple of chairs, a table (all in wood and paper tubes), a kitchen stand and a few mobile cupboards.
When the design of a project is as minimalist and simple as the Paper House’s, it’s essential that the architect designs the little of furniture that’s going to ouccupy it.
Obviously in the Paper House the outcome proves that it works best that way.
Reminder : it’s best to write down those lessons while modeling rather than several months later.
That about wraps up the lessons from Shigeru Ban’s Paper house model. See you on the next one,