“House in Toyohashi” is the private house for a retired elderly couple whose children have grown up and became independent. The house is located on a site surrounded by roads on the three sides in Toyohashi city of Aichi, where an art museum, sports facilities and a city park exist nearby.
The road on the north side of the house leads to the park. The west one connects to the elementary school. The east road is a main street in front of the house. These busy three roads with a high-traffic dose not allow the house to have large opening parts on the outside, and therefore an inner courtyard is incorporated in its relatively large site instead, for maintaining daylights and privacy.
A corridor surrounding the courtyard connects the rooms. A living room, dining room, kitchen, and other family rooms are all integrated with the corridor to ensure spaciousness and brightness. The private rooms not facing the courtyard takes light form high side lights while blocking a view from the outside. In addition, each space has a window in a low position for ventilation without worrying about the eyes of people outside.
The high side lights, the courtyard, and the corridor surrounding the courtyard lead a rational design of the structure to support the roof with a wall in the shape of a house. The courtyard has wide openings without any pillars, and high sidelights are installed in the entire outer wall of the house, which makes the roof looks floating quietly.
These seamless space around the courtyard creates a rhythm that allows people to move around.
The courtyard, designed by Mr. ShinpeiSasahara of Oikos Garden Planning Institute, crates an emotionally impressive space by using the garden stones collected by the client's father. The planting outside seen from the low windows are also designed by Oikos Garden Planning Inst. The courtyard and outside planting show various expressions from all directions of the surrounding corridor and have different attractions in each season.
With the courtyard as the center of the house, the flow of time and the changes of seasons can always be felt, and wherever you are, the place is full of light and somehow you can feel one another’s existence.
