A small garden is the theme of this house. The size of the garden is 3x4m. Surrounded by low stone walls, the floor is finished with soil, and overhead is covered with a translucent roof with louvers.
This garden is a porch for access to the house from the street, an outdoor dining room, and a place to take a nap. In Japanese towns, where houses are often lined up on small lots, it is difficult to allocate space for the garden. We sought to solve that difficulty by devising a housing planning mechanism.
First, the building is divided into the main volume (living room, kitchen, etc.) and a subvolume (bedroom, bathroom). Then slide them together to create space for the garden. This method is simple, but it has the effect of weakening the silhouette of the building and blending it into the surroundings. The building and garden are united and become part of the townscape.
The houses on both sides were designed in the same way. The right side was completed 7 years ago and the left side was completed 5 years ago. With this house in the middle, a townscape with three consecutive houses was realized.
