Aluminum house

Toyo Ito – Aluminum House – Aluminum House in Sakurajosui – Setagaya-ku, Tokyo Japan, 1997-2000

The "Aluminum House" was Ito's first project, completed in 1971, when he was 31 years old. It is incredible that even 50 years ago Ito attempted to collide the futuristic industrial material (aluminum) with our rustic heritage (the cabin or silo-like house design). When this house was conceived, Tokyo was in the midst of a rapid and frenetic transformation from a pre-modern, paternal-authoritarian society to one of the most engineered and "science fiction"-looking cities in the world.

Ito chose aluminum as the most "organic" option among the artificial/industrial materials that dominated the big cities in the 70s. Downtown Tokyo was literally becoming a concrete jungle. Compared to concrete or steel that is vigorous, overwhelming and irreversible, aluminum retains a certain fluidity or dualism that compares to an organic material. It is changeable/modifiable because it is light, elastic and conductive. Depending on how it is processed, it can appear shiny or opaque, it can become hot or cold, it can be reflective or transformed to be semi-opaque.

If nothing can stop the rapid modernization driven by ever-evolving technology, how can humans react? How will our bodies, our senses, our mindset, and the long-standing heritage stored in our genes fit into a predominantly inorganic, static, and non-interactive environment? The Aluminum Hut was an experiment in finding a way to live “organically” in an increasingly inhuman society.
Source: https://www.interactiongreen.com/japanese-house-toyo-ito/