The old couple decided to rebuild the existing house and build a new single-storey house  to live in their old age and eventually pass on to their daughter, who will live with them.
The site faces a street lined with cherry blossom trees of a small but historic shrine in northeast area of Japan.

The client, who is also a craftsman who does sheet metal and exterior construction work himself, was actively involved in the outside world, growing alpine plants and a variety of trees and plants in his garden and building a wall with Oya stone.

While the landscape of the old cherry blossom trees avenue was changing due to the construction , the walls and plants that the craftsmen had built themselves and that had been carved out over time seemed like fragments of a landscape that should be preserved.

The layout is planned in such a way as to preserve as much of the garden vegetation as possible, while improving the daylight environment of the garden on the south side.

The structure is a simple gabled construction, with the living room and other front functions on the south side and the entrance, private rooms and water on the north side.

The aim was to create a living space with a sense of depth through a series of elements that transcend the cohesion of the rooms, such as the continuous structure in the east-west direction and the tatami mats and shoji screens that span the living room and Japanese-style room.

When the windows and shoji screens are opened, the small room becomes a veranda where one can sit and look out over the garden, creating a visual and physical extension not only inside but also outside.

The ever-growing garden and rows of cherry blossom trees allow for an expansive lifestyle both inside and outside the building, surrounded by the expression of the seasons.

Team

Architect: Hiroki Nakadoi

Builder: Otomo kensetsu (Boku Tanno, Akira Fujiki) 

Sturucture: Ascoral Engineering Associates (Naoto Kashimoto, Arisa Inui)