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Architects: nevertheless / Yusuke Sagawa Architects
- Area: 66 m²
- Year: 2020
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Photographs:Yosuke Harada
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Manufacturers: Artunion, IOC, KMEW, Lilycolor, Tanita, YKK AP
Text description provided by the architects. The site is located in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, a residential area just a few minutes’ walk to the sea. Although located in the northeastern region of Japan, it is a pleasant area with relatively mild winters and cool beach breezes in the summer.
The owner is a couple and a child. Since the owner's parents live nearby, they requested a place for the family to gather and children to play. Therefore, we moved the building to the north, created a garden on the south side, and created a two-story terrace between the hall and garden. By enclosing the two-story terrace with columns and braces, the structure serves as a screen while remaining open.
Inside the house, the first floor consists of all the common areas and the second floor has the private rooms. Through small windows, a tiny light penetrates into the living room from each bedroom.
The building is made up of braced shinkabe walls (walls with exposed columns) around its perimeter and ookabe walls (walls with unexposed columns) on the inside. The shinkabe walls are covered with clear painted lauan plywood and the interior ookabe walls are finished with white wallpaper. All rooms have white walls and are supported by wooden frame structures and the ceiling is exposed to reveal the sloped roof. The interior spaces are not large, but we expected to create a variety of expressions by varying the height of the ceilings and the range of materials.
In this house, we tried to create spaces that play with the idea of duality, mediating between opposing elements and concepts such as lines and surfaces, varying scales, structures and facades, light and shadow, and demolition and construction. We hope that these contradictions in space will be a place where the inhabitants can experience new insights and create fresh perspectives and relationships.
