The client’s main request was that all rooms be oriented to the south.
Kai city, located in central Japan in the Kofu basin, experiences very harsh winters.

Compared to Tokyo, the residents in the area have a considerably greater desire to have rooms facing the south toward the sun, because of the cold climate. The site regulations allow for all rooms to be stacked vertically building a three-story house. However, we did not think it to be the best solution as the separate floors would have weakened the spatial and thus familial relations which would be unfavorable considering the family has two small children. We also wanted to make a coercive volume without towering over all the surrounding two-story houses. We wanted to keep a horizontal relationship with the neighborhood as well as within the home.

Thus, we designed the volume as a terraced shape in which all rooms face south and maintain horizontal connections between floors. The volume consists of, from the lower level, a living room connected to the front yard, a gallery space/refreshing space, and bedrooms. The higher the floor is, the more private. Washrooms, storage spaces, and the back-of-house are all located under the terraced volume.

Our main goal here was not to separate the house into living rooms and bedrooms, but rather to create intermediate spaces where each member of the family can enjoy their own time, and at the same time, have a feeling of closeness. We believe this enables diversity and richness for family life.

Such a space is demonstrated by the gallery/refreshing space. We designed wide corridors as opposed to narrow ones to be used as intermediate spaces. To emphasize our intentions, we indented parts of the corridor to create small spaces as dens for the children, and steps that also function as benches.

The gallery, by being connected to the hobby room and terrace, also plays the role of an interior street where all activities in the house or of the family flow through.

Structurally made of 100x100mm solid steel columns, most of them are equidistant from each other while some are placed wider apart. In order to be able to place them wider apart, it was necessary to use these solid steel beams as opposed to I-beams or hollow steel beams. This dimension is almost equal to wooden timber columns which are commonly found in traditional single houses.