Apollo Architects & Associates has completed a top-heavy building in Japan's Aichi Prefecture containing both an art gallery and a family residence (+ slideshow).

Located south of Nagoya in Obu, the three-storey property is named Gaze. It is designed by the Japanese firm to house a small contemporary art gallery on the lower level, with two floors of living space above.
But the client also has plans to convert other sections of the building into galleries at a later date, so the brief given to Apollo founder Satoshi Kurosaki was to create a series of spaces as flexible as possible.

Externally the 125-square-metre building looks like a stack of three boxes ? a small glass one at the bottom, framed by concrete, and two larger metal ones one top.
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This stacking technique is becoming more and more popular with architects trying to maximise space on awkward sites. To achieve it, Gaze has a combined timber and concrete structure that integrates several cantilevers.

"This building consists of a hybrid structure, with a podium on the first level composed of reinforced concrete and glazing, and wooden boxes configured in two floor levels and placed on top of the podium," explained Kurosaki.
"The floor area becomes larger as it goes up in higher levels," he added.

To create the dark metal finish on the two upper levels, these ...