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Architects: IGArchitects
- Area: 115 m²
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:Ooki Jingu
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Lead Architect: Masato Igarashi
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Construction: Komori Construction Construction, Hakaru Komori
Text description provided by the architects. The house was built on a flag pole land with a large mountain on its back, surrounded by other houses. The plan was to build a two-family house, and the client envisioned living in a one-story house with a generous space yet respecting privacy from the surroundings and between the families. A suitable way to achieve this seemed to be to create both a closed and open environment that could incorporate greenery from the back mountain.
The building is arranged in a boomerang shape along the back hill, with the south side wide open. Walls are built to block the view from the surrounding area, and clerestory windows are placed above the wall, giving an impression as if only the roof is floating. Inside, there is one large open space with boxes that enclose private functions such as toilets and bathrooms located separately. These boxes and the forest of pillars create depth in this casual park-like open space, accepting the habitant’s free activities.
The pillars are placed at an equal distance of 1.8m from each other as a structure, but their size of 90mm squared makes them density-like furniture close to human scale. These 90mm squared pillars with 3.5m height are forested and support the roof. The slender columns are installed according to the general rules of wooden architecture. Still, the number and density of the pillars and the large scale of 3.5m provide a continuous atmosphere with the greenery outside, creating an artificial forest that feels almost like a natural forest.
This architecture attempted to disassemble ideas of each element once and then reconstruct them. The pillars are out of walls, forested as if it is dancing. The roof is disconnected from the walls, floating freely. The separated elements are united once again in a different form. As a result, displacement and gaps are produced, which creates new relationships within interior space and between the outside and inside of the building. Using a simple wooden structure composition of positioning pillars in a 1.8m pitch produces a complex and rich environment that goes beyond its structure. This house is aimed to be an architecture where peace is like a forest and roughness is like a forest ground to coexist.
