House in Kami-Ikebukuro
©TkakeshiYAMAGISHI

House in Kami-Ikebukuro

Umbre Architects as Architects

The area around the site is a densely built-up wooden area where roads are being improved and buildings are being made non-combustible and earthquake-resistant as a fire spread barrier zone in order to create a city that is resistant to disaster prevention. The area of ​​the site was halved by the city planning road project, and the depth was shallow and the width was wide. The owner thought about the land where they had lived for three generations and continued the life of his elderly mother.

The two-family house was rebuilt. A light garden was set up on the southeast side to ensure ventilation and daylighting from the dense area side, aiming to balance the comfort of living.  The L-shaped plan that surrounds the light garden allows parents and children who live together in cross-section and plane to maintain an appropriate distance. The structural plan is a hybrid structural plan that incorporates a wall-type structure and 300mm square pillars.

Those Increases the degree of freedom of the opening facing the light garden. In order to enjoy a communal life with four cats, the child household space overlaps the floor that makes use of the cat's habits (looking out, hiding, looking down) and the floor of people, and the lives of people and cats intersect with nature.

As the building facing the expansion road gets taller, the southwestern exterior of the building at the beginning of this project has a stepped volume to connect the fire spread barrier buildings and scale of the wooden buildings behind it.

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