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Architects: FUMIASO ARCHITECT & ASSOCIATES
- Area: 93 m²
- Year: 2024
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Photographs:yousuke ohotake
Inside and inside, inside and outside, creating distance through openings – The site is surrounded by Japan Railways and private railways to the north and south, a huge ruins park and main roads to the east and west, and is a corner of a residential area cut off by urban infrastructure, with small houses neatly lined up. The streetscape is not particularly distinctive, and it looks like something you could find anywhere.
Due to the convenient location, the area is undergoing a generational change through rebuilding. The landscape of the area is changing from a two-story residential one without garages to a three-story residential one with garages. In other words, by creating a garage, the front yard on the first floor disappears while the third floor will increase the volume of the building.
A new two-story building without a garage was planned for this location. Due to the characteristics of the site, an irregular pentagon with two open sides on a corner that makes it difficult to pinpoint the direction, we decided to solve the problem in the same way on all sides. First, we drew a line one size smaller than the site boundary line and divided it into nine squares. By dividing it into nine, the building was built equally on all five sides in each direction. We opened the intersections of the nine squares and closed the lines that did not intersect. Thus, the adjacent squares became spaced apart, and one could have a view over diagonal squares that resonated with each other. The nine squares and four intersecting areas appeared.
The quality of the space was changed by aligning the height of the intersecting hanging walls and changing them at each intersection. Some spaces, such as spaces 6 and 8 on the first floor and space 15 on the second floor, are separated by walls. Other areas are gently enclosed by hanging walls at the intersections of the squares: For example, the transition space from space 5 to space 9 on the first floor (the entrance at the top of the stairs) and the kitchen and dining room on the second floor which provide a living area.
When your sight changes as you move around in your daily life, the way you perceive the space changes – the space is sometimes connected and disconnected. As for the connection to the town, greenery was brought into the squares. The front garden was created in the interior by putting it in the square and adding a layer. The ceiling was raised, making the overall building about 2.5 stories tall.
For each direction, the windows are scattered around, taking into account the subtle characteristics of the neighborhood and shaping the opening positions and sizes. In doing so, we removed a sense of literacy that indicates floor numbers and directions from the exterior. This allows the windows to create a view that blends between the two-story building with a front yard but a garage and the three-story building with a garage but a front yard.
