House with a skate-ramp

The Skate Park house was custom built for a Shibuya, Tokyo couple, integrating a skate-ramp, a piano studio, and many lovely design flourishes. I think the stair-rail looks like it'd be awesome for grinding, too -- or at least soaping.

The owners of this house, a young married couple, made a special request in regards to the design of their house, located in a quiet residential neighborhood in Shibuya ward. They wanted both a skateboard park and a piano rehearsal room to reflect their own individual interests.
There was no need for a car park on the site, so to take advantage of space a private entrance courtyard was designed. The sliding glass panels of the first floor open up onto this enclosed area and allows for the workshop and studio to expand outwards. The studio has a skateboard bowl imbedded into the floor with multiple angles for plenty of different interaction.
The piano room, located at the back of the studio, is raised about 2 feet from the ground to help with the sound-proofing of the room as well as creating an inherent stage performance space. When the doors open up onto the studio, the expanded space with the bowl transform into guest seating and completely changes the atmosphere from a mere practice room to a public concert hall.

Skate Park House (via Core77)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: architecture • design • happy mutants • Japan • sports

More at Boing Boing

Ants and Stars: Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy

The Snowden Principle

http://illustratorhints.com/ Jesseham

One of my favorite teachers at the Art Institute of Seattle had a >12′ quarter-pipe in his house in Wilkeson, WA, which was also a defunct diner and had previously been a boarding house.
Shibi_SF

The ceiling looks kinda low for the skateboarding ramp room.
robdobbs

“Soaping”? Like those shoes from the late ’90s – early aughts? Are those still a thing?
http://twitter.com/neojaponisme Néojaponisme

Easily a $3 million property. It’s in one of the most expensive areas of Tokyo and required custom design.

Good news is people this rich also have another $1 million to re-do it when they realize this is totally unpractical.
http://www.facebook.com/benjamin.pask Benjamin Pask

The bowl looks unskateable, but that probably doesn’t matter if you’re the sort of poser who has a ‘vintage’ board like the one in the photo. The streets of Shibuya – and Tokyo as a whole – are rad to skate, like what this guy does:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYLPUZyg8yg
http://profile.yahoo.com/OMHO6ER5QJE3SIZ35VAXIRCLYM Stephan

Such a tiny house in Shibuya easily buys you a Brownstone in the West Village.
I always wonder where these young married couples come up with that kind of money.
At least they seem to be one-percenters with street cred.