Tactical Precedents & Close Readings: Coil
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Investigating a residential design that follows a continuous spatial experience inspired by the organic logic of a coil.
Architecture is a discipline deeply rooted in historical and contemporary precedents, forming a continuum of ideas that inform new design explorations. This project engages in precedent-based research and advanced representation techniques to critically analyze and reinterpret architectural ideas. Through close reading and graphical analysis of an exemplary residential building, this study investigates spatial continuity, formal logic, and organizational systems to extract key principles for future design development.
Location:
Tokyo, Japan
Role:
Architecture
Representation
Phasing:
Pre-Design
Class:
University of Southern California (USC)
ARCH 505B
Concept
This project explores a residential design that follows a continuous spatial experience, inspired by the organic logic of a coil. The coil serves as both a conceptual and formal device—an uninterrupted flow that generates interconnected spaces, seamlessly guiding movement and visual perception. The investigation focuses on how spatial continuity can be achieved through an architectural language that emphasizes fluid transitions, nested relationships, and dynamic circulation.
Design
The design concept of ‘Coil’ by Akihisa Hirata focuses on creating a seamless integration of city and home within a dense Tokyo neighborhood.
The residence features a neutral, white exterior that blends with its surroundings.
Inside, the design follows a continuous spatial experience inspired by the organic logic of a coil. Rooms are integrated into a single, winding corridor that gradually steps and rises, blurring boundaries between spaces.
Various activities and programs are thoughtfully organised within this compact house, maximising functionality while maintaining a fluid spatial flow.
Form Generation Diagram:
This house is built inside - out, allowing the Architect to focus on the egress that also acts as a programming element.
Concept Diagram by Akihisa Hirata
Living spaces admit the staggered levels.
Image source: Designboom
Site
Grid
Massing
Structure
Volume
Movement
Program
Fenestration
Color Chromatic Studies
Color is more than an aesthetic choice—it is a fundamental tool for shaping atmosphere, guiding perception, and reinforcing spatial continuity. In the Coil Project, color is explored as a medium that enhances the fluidity of space, heightens sensory experience, and deepens the architectural narrative. Inspired by the organic logic of a coil, the project integrates a monochromatic palette that reinforces the seamless transitions between spaces while subtly altering perception and emotion through tonal variations.
Windows Open Simultaneously (First Part, Third Motif)
1912, Robert Delaunay
Image source: Tate Gallery
Color is not just a visual attribute in the Coil Project—it is a dynamic force that enhances movement, perception, and spatial rhythm. Drawing inspiration from Robert Delaunay’s Windows Open Simultaneously (First Part, Third Motif)(1912), the project explores color as a way to evoke energy, fluidity, and layered depth within a continuously unfolding space.
Delaunay’s painting, with its fragmented planes of vibrant color and shifting perspectives, informs the Coil Project’sapproach to spatial sequencing and chromatic composition. Just as Delaunay used overlapping colors to suggest the rhythm of urban life, the Coil Project employs layered hues to reinforce the continuous spatial flow and varying intensities of movement.
Hue & Atmosphere: A vibrant yet harmonized palette echoes the way Delaunay’s colors pulse with energy, creating a sense of constant transformation.
Color & Perception: Shifts in color saturation and brightness mirror the painting’s interplay between transparency and opacity, allowing spaces to feel both expansive and compressed depending on vantage points.
Material Integration: Pigmented terrazzo, semi-reflective surfaces, and light-filtering materials allow color to interact with changing light conditions, much like the way Delaunay captured shifting urban light through color modulation.
Just as Windows Open Simultaneously fractures and reassembles its subject through color, the Coil Project uses chromatic shifts to define movement, thresholds, and spatial depth:
Gradient Transitions: Color fades and intensifies along the continuous spatial sequence, reinforcing the organic motion of the coil.
Vibrant Intersections: At key moments of compression and expansion, bold contrasting hues highlight junctions, much like Delaunay’s layering of warm and cool tones to suggest overlapping urban experiences.
Light & Energy: The interaction between artificial and natural light activates color, creating dynamic shifts in perception throughout the day—echoing the luminous intensity of Delaunay’s work.
By treating color as an architectural element rather than a surface treatment, the Coil Project transforms spatial experience through atmospheric intensity, layered depth, and dynamic movement—creating a continuously unfolding sensory environment.
Multi-Projection Composite Diptych - Chromatic Space
Light Coral
Multi-Projection Composite Diptych - Chromatic Space
Tangerine
Multi-Projection Composite Diptych - Chromatic Space
Forest
Multi-Projection Composite Diptych - Chromatic Space
Warm Cream
Man Visible and Invisible
1902, C.W. Leadbeater
Image source: The Color of Modernism by Deborah Ascher Barnstone
Inspired by C.W. Leadbeater’s Man Visible and Invisible (1902), which explores the unseen layers of human consciousness through the study of auras, this project interprets color as a spatial aura that shifts in intensity, transparency, and emotional resonance.
Leadbeater’s depiction of human auras as evolving energy fields informs the Coil Project’s exploration of gradual chromatic transitions and atmospheric modulation. Just as an aura reflects an individual's state of being, the use of color in this project suggests a continuously changing spatial experience, where hues respond to movement, light, and materiality.
Hue & Perception: The project employs a gradient of colors that evolve across the spatial sequence, much like Leadbeater’s shifting auras indicate states of mind. Cool, ethereal tones define areas of retreat and introspection, while warmer, vibrant hues signal dynamic social or transitional spaces.
Transparency & Light: Just as auras are described as luminous, semi-transparent layers, the project integrates translucent materials and diffused lighting to allow color to bleed, overlap, and interact dynamically.
Materiality as Aura: Polished terrazzo, reflective metallics, and subtly pigmented concrete create material-based color effects that shift depending on perspective and natural light conditions, reinforcing the concept of an architecture that “glows” from within.
Multi-Projection Composite Diptych – Atmospheric Space
Royal Violet: Devotion Mixed with Affection
Multi-Projection Composite Diptych – Atmospheric Space
Shark Grey: Serene, Calm, and Wellness
Multi-Projection Composite Diptych – Atmospheric Space
Sweet Tangerine: Pride
Multi-Projection Composite Diptych – Atmospheric Space
Forest Green: Wellness and Health
Physical Model
The physical model serves as a key representation of the Coil Project’s massing and structural logic, emphasizing spatial continuity and form without distraction from materiality or color variation. Rendered entirely in light grey, the model focuses on the project's pure geometric composition, highlighting the interplay between solid and void, compression and expansion, and the overall organizational structure.
By maintaining a monochromatic palette, these models strip away surface details to focus on the architectural essence, reinforcing the project's conceptual foundation of continuous spatial experience and structural coherence.
1:35 Sectional Model
This cutaway model reveals the internal spatial flow, showcasing how movement unfolds within the coiled form. It emphasizes the vertical relationships, sectional layering, and spatial thresholds that define the project.
1:75 Model
A full-volume study, this model presents the project as a whole, allowing for a clearer understanding of its overall massing, proportions, and external form.
1:35 Sectional Model + Chromatic Studies
1:75 Model + Chromatic Studies
References
Archdaily, Alp, Akihisa Hirata
Shinkenchiku, November 2012 Issue, Page 86
Akihisa Hirata Architecture Office Website, https://www.hao.nu
Union Artware, A Conversation with Akihisa Hirata
DesignBoom, Akihisa Hirata Architecture Office, Coil
Habitatio, E 39, Akihisa Hirata – Coil
Spoon & Tamago, Coil by Akihisa Hirata – A house like the letter S.
Akihisa Hirata, Discovering New
Jutakutokushu, December 2023 issue, 048P
Unauthorized use of any image or text is prohibited in any use. Images cannot be altered or modified in any way, in whole or in part, that disparages Jae Bin Lee or any of the collaborators.
