This small architecture is one big room. There is not much separation wall inside, and the space is created by the floor, building frame walls and steps.
The house is for a married couple. They have vague boundary between their private and work life, therefore they were imagining a house where they can work anywhere and where they can sense the presence of each other wherever in the house.
With such lifestyle, rather than to have a small space for a compact living, instead the house was designed to have large air volume and scale that makes various interactions of inside and outside space.
This led to the idea of the house of frame, which is strong but flexible, where it allows a liberal way of living.
The north side wall in the building has skewed to create a space that connects to the adjacent vacant site.
Along that wall, the heights and depth of each floor had adjusted throughout the building.
These misaligned 3 walls and 7 floor slabs with different heights and depths overlap to each other without breaking up its top and bottom end.
This structure creates openings that bring in natural light and breeze, but by avoiding views into other houses.
There is no opening to the south side, thus strong sunlight does not penetrate inside. However natural light reaches in all day from over the north side wall, allowing rich senses of time, weather, and season changes.
For further information please visit www.igarchitects.jp.
CREDITS
Project: Building Frame of the House
Studio: IGArchitects
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Year: 2023
Photos: Ooki Jingu
