House Zero Cosmology
"The Object of Zero Form, which symbolizes the universe of the current utopia 'Zero Cosmology' as the home of architecture, is a universal egg of 'infinite presence' through which eternal time flows. It is based on cosmology, with the understanding that the birth of architecture does not occur solely in the present, but that its genesis unfolds on the eternal globe of the universe."
Kagoshima is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture. It is located at the southwestern tip of Kyushu Island on the Satsuma Peninsula by Kagoshima Bay. Kagoshima is nicknamed the Japanese Naples, both due to its warm climate and primarily because of the large Sakurajima volcano, which dominates the city's skyline. Sakurajima is an active stratovolcano. Once an island in the bay, during the last major volcanic eruption in 1914, it spewed so much lava that it connected the former island to the Osumi Peninsula. Since 1955, smoke has been continuously billowing from the volcano, and every year thousands of small eruptions occur.
In a city where nature so majestically demonstrates its power, Masaharu Takasaki built his house and architectural studio. The most published image of this building (taken from an opposite apartment building) captures it with the smoking volcano in the background, perhaps suggesting that this building relates not to its architectural surroundings but to forces beyond human reach. In the densely populated residential area of Kamoike, not too far from the city center or the coastal bay, a concrete box is wedged between family homes and apartment buildings, with a concrete cosmic egg at its center, as if it were gently placed there by some mythical creature. The building has a purely geometric foundation, exuding mathematical principles, yet it also possesses something sculptural. A concrete block elevated on columns in the corners to the level of the first floor shelters a magical front yard, in the center of which is a stepped circular pool that is a projection of the 'Zero Cosmology' or 'Zero Form' hovering closely above it, as Takasaki refers to the giant cosmic egg—a rotational ellipsoid or spheroid meant to symbolize the cosmos. Although from the frontal view from the street it seems that the house consists solely of the block and the floating egg, from the back of the property a vertical wedge enters the block—the quarter of the diagonally divided plan of the block, protruding from the shallow volume of the house itself, which lies along the entire width of the back side of the block. The wedge bites into the ellipsoid and connects it to the interior space of the house through a circular opening. From halfway up, the egg is punctured by numerous tiny circular windows, creating within it the illusion of a starry sky. The block protecting the egg is pierced by openings on all sides, including the bottom, through which the ellipsoid passes down through diagonal concrete beams, revealing the skeleton or reinforcement of the block’s walls. The openings create a changing pattern, exposing imaginary reinforcement—two diagonals and a central circle.
The core and foundational conceptual element of the house—the cosmic egg, this powerful motif that Takasaki also used in another building (the city museum with an observatory in Tamana completed a year later)—seems to have even inspired Tadao Ando, who in his Inamori Auditorium (1994), located in the park almost adjacent to Takasaki's Zero Cosmology, also employed the egg motif. The shape of the egg, which contains the main hall, is quite unusual for Tadao Ando, and since this shape does not recur in other Ando realizations—despite Ando often repeating the same elements and motifs in his buildings—this could be interpreted as a direct response to Takasaki.
The strength and quality of Takasaki’s realization are immense, despite its small size. The creative principles employed have placed it among timeless architectural works.
Masaharu Takasaki
Kagoshima is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture. It is located at the southwestern tip of Kyushu Island on the Satsuma Peninsula by Kagoshima Bay. Kagoshima is nicknamed the Japanese Naples, both due to its warm climate and primarily because of the large Sakurajima volcano, which dominates the city's skyline. Sakurajima is an active stratovolcano. Once an island in the bay, during the last major volcanic eruption in 1914, it spewed so much lava that it connected the former island to the Osumi Peninsula. Since 1955, smoke has been continuously billowing from the volcano, and every year thousands of small eruptions occur.
In a city where nature so majestically demonstrates its power, Masaharu Takasaki built his house and architectural studio. The most published image of this building (taken from an opposite apartment building) captures it with the smoking volcano in the background, perhaps suggesting that this building relates not to its architectural surroundings but to forces beyond human reach. In the densely populated residential area of Kamoike, not too far from the city center or the coastal bay, a concrete box is wedged between family homes and apartment buildings, with a concrete cosmic egg at its center, as if it were gently placed there by some mythical creature. The building has a purely geometric foundation, exuding mathematical principles, yet it also possesses something sculptural. A concrete block elevated on columns in the corners to the level of the first floor shelters a magical front yard, in the center of which is a stepped circular pool that is a projection of the 'Zero Cosmology' or 'Zero Form' hovering closely above it, as Takasaki refers to the giant cosmic egg—a rotational ellipsoid or spheroid meant to symbolize the cosmos. Although from the frontal view from the street it seems that the house consists solely of the block and the floating egg, from the back of the property a vertical wedge enters the block—the quarter of the diagonally divided plan of the block, protruding from the shallow volume of the house itself, which lies along the entire width of the back side of the block. The wedge bites into the ellipsoid and connects it to the interior space of the house through a circular opening. From halfway up, the egg is punctured by numerous tiny circular windows, creating within it the illusion of a starry sky. The block protecting the egg is pierced by openings on all sides, including the bottom, through which the ellipsoid passes down through diagonal concrete beams, revealing the skeleton or reinforcement of the block’s walls. The openings create a changing pattern, exposing imaginary reinforcement—two diagonals and a central circle.
The core and foundational conceptual element of the house—the cosmic egg, this powerful motif that Takasaki also used in another building (the city museum with an observatory in Tamana completed a year later)—seems to have even inspired Tadao Ando, who in his Inamori Auditorium (1994), located in the park almost adjacent to Takasaki's Zero Cosmology, also employed the egg motif. The shape of the egg, which contains the main hall, is quite unusual for Tadao Ando, and since this shape does not recur in other Ando realizations—despite Ando often repeating the same elements and motifs in his buildings—this could be interpreted as a direct response to Takasaki.
The strength and quality of Takasaki’s realization are immense, despite its small size. The creative principles employed have placed it among timeless architectural works.
Zdenka Němcová Zedníčková
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