Minimal japan

The site is located in the dense residential area of Narayama, Akita city, facing a row of a thousand cherry trees lining the bank of the Taihei River. The house is designed for a couple and their child on a small land of 92.5 msq, located at the fork of a road.   What was required from the design: A house with the ability to open out to its the surroundings, despite the harsh Akita snow, and enjoy the view of the cherry blossom trees lining the Taihei River from the comfort of the house. Since the site is located in a dense residential district, the narrow road fronting the site sees heavy traffic. We felt that a conventional construction approach would seem oppressive to this surrounding, and thus the two walls facing the road are incline... More

Located in the mountain basin of Uonuma, Japan; the city does a complete turnaround from warm humid summers to snow covered winters. Here the temperature can reach up to 30 degree celcius in summers with over 80% humidity, while in winter the city might receive snowfall reaching up to 3 meters in height. Thus, a house built in this region needs to not only face the adversities of the land but also create an environment where the residents can thrive within their surroundings.   The conventional design approach to counter this snow is to elevate the living spaces, use mechanical means to melt rooftop snow using ground water and have thick walls with additional insulation. But all these measures create an isolation between the inside a... More

Opposites rule: light and darkness create an ideal separation, so the same space can serve the two souls in Japs! – fast and slow. This was a 360° project that went from interior decor to branding, connecting every aspect: for example, the decorative motif in the logo became a graphic and architectural element, in a relationship of perfect symmetry between image and architecture. Now each Japs! restaurant offers a different Japanese specialty, effectively connoting the chain’s different venues and sparking clients’ curiosity.Stone and wood make Japs! restaurants cozy and elegant, so clients feel welcome and stay longer. In the area closer to the entrance, darker colors and wider use of hard materials were designed for... More

Such as collective housing a small small room lined, housing such as tenement. Through the open to make a listen for the sunny south side, and connected to the checkered, small small room, each concept the space each such be regarded as a small house. I will continue to integrate blends in the lower level, and to share space in the family to overlap them. Family is also a small unit of social group most, in the modern sense of individuals are respected in a natural way in the home, making the house as collective housing small, Maybe the technique is valid for granted come to think of may. (2011 winning WAN House of the Year) More

The house positions itself in Okayama Prefecture near Seto Inland Sea. The site is located on a terraced mountain hill that was developed as a residential land. The family is consisted of a married couple and a child. We considered a new way of architecture on the site condition, where views are open towards the north and the ground level is one meter higher than the road level. The relationship is as if the site’s natural environment and the architecture coexist at the same time. The architecture has become a part of the whole landscape of undivided environment, not simply thinking about connection to the surroundings from the cut off opening in walls. This time, we came up with a living form that accepts the outside environment such as... More

With a plant for example, a seedling grows straight when it germinates without any context in the immediate environment. However, a seedling grows its stem and leaves by responding to its environment when it is surrounded by many kinds of plants. Plants consider how to grow the stems and leaves by judging their surrounding environment. We were interested in designing architecture that exhibits a similar quality. In this project, we carefully investigated the site and its surroundings, allowing these to shape one building. More

The site is situated in urbanization controlled area between residential area and farm land. It belongs to legally unbuildable zone but the client was allowed to build due to his vested rights of the land. The house stands on edge between economy-based urban development area and rural land. Our design proposes a dramatic shift from economy-based to ecology-based life style. We first envisioned living under tarp-like structure where one can fully feel nature and move freely between inside and outside. In order to integrate architecture and nature, we work with the concept of “blurring the boundary” by adopting the following design ideas. Firstly the plan becomes a maze-like composition where interior and exterior spaces are interwoven.... More

Looking for the stable climate in the room This is a house in the northern part of Hyogo Prefecture for a couple and their two children. The construction site is a part of a place surrounded by mountains and the sky is overcast most of the days. I wanted to create light, stable indoor climate and came up with a plan of three sheds of house type arranged on a 1.8 m high, grey foundation platform. The level of the first floor was lowered by 760 mm below the ground to get firm basement, as the site was slant before the development, and to get more stable performance of the floor heating system of foundation heat condensing type utilizing the terrestrial heat. It was also expected that the whole site could be used like a garden as... More

This is a dental clinic accompanied with a housing project. The conditions required were: to make the clinic and housing into one building, to create three individual treatment rooms and a couple of rooms that are able to alter into treatment rooms in the future for the clinic, and to provide the treatment area wide spread feelings while keeping its privacy. For the housing section, the client wanted to have a pleasant view of the sky. Other than these conditions, locating openings also needed particular attention in order to maintain enough natural lighting levels in the building; the site suffers from strong winter wind and is famous for the hottest temperature record in Japan during the summer. First of all, I made a rule to cre... More

This is an extension project on a thirty-five year-old house for a daughter and her husband. A Zelkova tree and a Camphor tree stood on the site since the time the main house was build thirty-five years ago. Removing these trees was one of the design requirements because the new additional building could not be built if these trees remained. When I received the offer for the project, I thought of various designs before I visited the site for the first time. However, all my thoughts were blown away as soon as I saw the site in person. The two trees stood there quite strongly. I listen to the stories in detail; the daughter has memories of climbing these trees when she was little. These trees looked over the family for thirt... More

Renewal of a form / lasting a sense of scale This is a reconstruction of a house in the centre of the city. The site has 5 meters for lateral directions, and 18 meters for longitudinal one. This is a north‐south site formed like machiya .The family is consisted of two children and their parents. The feature of this site is surrounded by buildings on east and west side, and faced on the south road; there is a 30meters high car park building. Those shut out the sunlight. Since the site has many conditions, we thought that it would be comfortable space that we can feel basic elements such as sunlight and wind, and that we succeed to a form which nagaya have had. As regards to the plan, we put every rooms along with the inner garden that... More