The house stands on a sloping land that is unique to Yokohama. The site is located on a flat slope lined with wooden houses. An old aerial photograph of the area shows that the sloping land, which was once cultivated as a field and had flat land, was gradually converted to residential land about 50 years ago.
In recent housing land development, a rectangular land has been developed in accordance with the standards of industrialized housing. However, the creation of the fields is closer to the logic of the topography, and a series of irregular flat fields that show how the land and humans fought each other have created a landscape. When the developed land forms a residential area, it results in a lot of residual land, and a gap and greenery can be felt in the continuous retaining wall.
The site is a slope going down to the southwest, with a road to the north and a shrine across the road.The difference in height between the north and south sides is about 4 meters, and a triangular plain is created at a level about 1 meter below the north side road. On the other hand, the road on the north side is a lifeline for the neighboring residents and there is a considerable amount of traffic, and it is a place that requires a certain amount of consideration in order to improve the living environment. In this project, existing houses were demolished and new houses were built, but it was also an important matter that several trees, such as the very delicious mandarin orange tree planted in "Remains of the irregular site" were taken over from the previous residents and left behind.
When planning a house in this place, which is a sloping land on a macro level and a flat land on a micro level, we thought that it was important to first rely on "slope" including the surrounding environment in order to confront this place. Therefore, a gate-shaped frame was set along the direction of the slope of the terrain, and the planning was advanced based on this. The continuous frame, whose width is adjusted to the shape of the site, provides both the axis of the body along the slope and the orientation of the space extending perpendicular to it.
Rooms are arranged so as to be entangled with these two intersecting axes, and live action lines including backyards such as pantries and closets are assembled and connected in a circular fashion. The plan also calls for the construction of a dirt floor that runs through the north and south to ensure a migratory route to the outside world. Using the portal frame as a guide, the planning and layout of the building and the boundary between the inside and outside of the building were controlled, so that the entire site could be walked in daily life, with the aim of constructing a place of life as a point of contact between the slope and the flat.
