This house was designed with the intent to provide a single optimal and calm environment by means of a large external courtyard as a common space for the entire family, and as a shared element for all spaces within the house. All of its residents will see the same scenery, feel the same passage of time or flow of wind, and hear the same sounds. While the design of this house resulted in the creation of an unusual form, there are instances where external factors that influence the residential design exist in the surrounding environment. For this site situated where prefectural roads and municipal roads intersect at an acute angle, the traffic from the prefectural road became a form of external pressure, like as "wall of vehicles". The vector of vehicular movement flows into the site on the oblique side of the trapezoid site. The large exterior courtyard that divides the first floor was arranged in a dynamic composition to ward off infiltrating external pressures. It occupies 1/3 of the site area.
A single-story universal space, the living room, dining room and kitchen, was situated to the south of the courtyard and to the north, a two-story building with private rooms and the wife's atelier. Through spatial connections above the courtyard the entire residence becomes one continuous unit. The interior and courtyard were separated by a glazed wall of fixed windows and operable sliding windows. Structural columns of 35mm-by-125mm steel flat bars were set at an interval of 600mm.
