LOVE2 HOUSE

Koji Fujii / Nacasa&Pertners Inc

• Architects

Single story house of 18.84m2

I lived in “LOVE HOUSE” in Yokohama for 10 years.

I started to teach as a professor in Waseda University Art and Architec-ture school since 2015 and it takes too much hours to commute there from Yokohama. That’s the reason I decided to construct my second house,” LOVE2HOUSE ”. I got 31.41m2 lot in Tokyo and immediately started to design 2 stories house.

photo_credit Koji Fujii / Nacasa&Pertners Inc — Koji Fujii / Nacasa&Pertners Inc

My wife had been reading the book at that time about Edo-period which says a family of 4 lives in 9.6m2 house called “Nagaya (one story small apartment)” at that time.

After reading the book she said to me ”18m2 is quite huge for two of us!” Then I shifted to design a single story house of 18.84m2.

As example, the following houses are smaller than 20m2:Hojoan written in Hojoki by Kamo no Chomei(1155-1216);9.18m2, Le corbusier’s Cabanon;16.85m2.I analyze that these two owners commonly so much loved the life in their houses and surrounded environment.

As I experienced every earth components, for instance, sunshine, rain, snow, animal, plants and people, during my life in “LOVE HOUSE”,Ifo-cused on eternity of small space which posses everything in.

The ancient Roman place importance on 5 components as ideal life in vil-la; Study ,Bath, Drama, Music and Epicurism.I desired to enrich these 5 components in this small house of 18.84m2.We do enjoy to take a bath every night, to listen 300 collections of disc record, to eat rice boiled in earthen pot, and read the favored books. Besides, we rely on the Bible when we get tired as Kamo no Chomei mentioned in Hojoan about reli-gion as one of the key components in one’s life.

Direct connection to nature and town

The sunlight simulation showed that the site can not obtain direct sun-shine for 3months in the winter.It really made me disappointed at first but I shifted to conceive this fact as a similar environment to Scandinavian country.

This concept leaded me to draw the sketch of two curved roofs tops of which are open to the sky.In the winter,the two skylights effectively take soft sunlight into the house.In the summer the house is filled with brilliant sunshine like tropical country. We could feel sunlight of all over the world throughout the year.

The roof is composed of two HP shells. They are merged at different heights and create a simple house shape. The eaves of the roof shells shape straight to blend with the surroundings but the top of the shells are slightly curved.

The seven short walls derived from the main RC skeleton separate the three zones: dining, kitchen and bedroom. The thickness of these walls is decreased for 15mm from top to bottom to install the shelf boards and the kitchen counter. The RC skeleton works not only as a big body but also as small furniture in this small house.

When we keep the window facing on the street fully opened, People who walk on the street feel free to talk to me. It's like a long-time friend. and children put their hands on the floor and look inside. We even pat strolling dogs from dining.

The front street has flower bed so we enjoy it as our garden. In this house we feel the town very close. We are really surprised how pleasant to communicate with the town is!