Hasta La Ideas

Every room inside this concrete house in Kyoto by Torafu Architects is accessible for a resident in a wheelchair (+ slideshow).

Both a lift and staircase connect the ground floor with the central living room and kitchen on the floor above, where worktops are set at a reduced height.

Smaller rooms surround this living/dining room on every side and feature sloping ceilings that don’t all correspond with the shape of the roof outside.

A large square aperture reveals the location of a courtyard along one side of the house, with openings that let natural light into the rooms beyond and below.

Other recent projects by Torafu Architects include a shelf with a secret drawer and a skincare shop with stained wooden surfaces that look like marble.

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Photography is by Daici Ano.

Here’s a project description from Torafu Architects:

House in Kitaoji

Located in a quiet housing estate in Kyoto, this house was designed with a hard concrete outer shell in order to protect the client need for privacy from the outside, as well as for accessibility in a wheelchair-bound lifestyle.

Firstly, to protect the privacy of the family, we built walls along the site boundary to elevate the main living space, which is maximised on the 2nd floor.

We designed a large central space with individual rooms, wet areas and circulation and other utility spaces surrounding it, to ensure a distance is kept well from the outside.

This compact formation also eliminated the need for passageways in this house.

In contrast with the outer wall of this building, we used various kinds of furniture at the central space as partitions to softly separate the internal areas.

Avoiding windows along the road, we located spaces with open ceilings and a terrace inside the building for light and ventilation.

This way, the occupants can feel the outside anywhere from within this central space.

Considering the environment of the site resulted in a building with a gabled form.

We folded the roofs of the small rooms around the central space into the yard to achieve a funnel shaped cross section, which allows light to enter easily into centre of the house.

We also individualised the rooms by giving each a different ceiling height.

Although unseen from the outside, within the spaces of these different rooms under this big roof, a bright and open space was made possible.

Principle use: House
Facility design: Daiko(Lightings)
Structural design: Takashi Manda Structural Design
Production: Kyoto kensetsu

Above: ground floor plan

Building site: Kyoto
Site area: 139.39m2
Total floor area: 133.93m2

Above: first floor plan

Number of stories: 2F
Structure: RC

Above: section A-A

Design period: 2010.07-2011.10
Construction period: 2011.11-2012.08

Above: section B-B

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by Torafu Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

This small faceted house by Japanese studios D.I.G Architects and Nawakenji-m is embedded in a steep slope overlooking the city of Nagoya (+ slideshow).

The architects excavated into the hill to level the site and created a large living room on the sunken floor.

The front door leads onto a upper deck suspended across the breadth of the house, where metal stairs lead down to the level below.

There are no windows on the street-facing elevations, but a glazed wall spans the back of the house and slides open onto a terrace with more faceted walls.

Photography is by Tomohiro Sakashita.

Here’s some more information from D.I.G Architects:

K House

A small house located on a steep slanting slope. The client simply wanted a life with a blessing of nature nearby and the beautiful townscape in distant.

Left only with a very narrow flat part which is barely enough for a car, the site was steeply sloped down, almost like a cliff.

We first had an idea to excavate the ground to generate a living space. Corresponding the nature form, heterogeneous and flexible space would retrieve the enchantment of the site.

Not a house constructed on a cliff, but a habitat generated by the nature form of the cliff. A habitat like a pit or a shed later discovered in the terrains of landscape.

So we dig the earth to make the “floor”. Then a “sail” was set on that dent.

Site plan

The structural image of the generation of this “sail” is that the closed and self-contained systems, like a polyhedron or a sphere, came down to the site and was spread up through anchoring to the earth.

Upper floor plan – click above for larger image

Now we’ve got a certain volume on a steeply slanting surface wrapped with a pitted earth and the sail-like tent on top. Then we put a flat and straight deck bridging the vacant space.

Lower floor plan – click above for larger image

There’s no function assigned for this deck for the moment. But you might have moments in the life surrounded and protected by the earth that you need a place detached from the ground.

Section – click above for larger image

There’s no partition dividing space, but level differences by a deck and a pit that generate characteristics for the empty space. The uses are not regulated except the bathroom.

North elevation

You think how to use while in use, through the direct feeling to your body.

East elevation

Design: Akinori Yoshimura + Maki Yoshimura/D.I.G Architects, Nawa Kenji/Nawakenji-m
Complete: December 2011

South elevation

Collaborator: (structural design) Nawa Kenji/Nawakenji-m
Area: total 89.4m2

West elevation

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and Nawakenji-m appeared first on Dezeen.

Tokyo studio International Royal Architecture designed this seaside house with the “form of a pure white arrow”.

The exterior of ISM house is completely wrapped in waterproof fiberglass-reinforced polymer.

Large double doors in both sides open a tunnel through the middle of the building with rooms either side screened by sliding glass doors.

A mezzanine bridges the gap and creates an airy upper level under the roof, uninterrupted by columns.

Glazing under the eaves bounces daylight around the upper level and spills light onto the porch and yard on each side at night.

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Royal Architecture appeared first on Dezeen.

Rather than erasing all trace of this Kyoto townhouse’s previous owners, Japanese architects Q-Architecture Laboratory preserved the earlier haphazard extensions as a timeline of the building’s history.

Timeline Machiya is a traditional Kyoto townhouse, called a Kyo-machiya. Originally built in around 1935, it had been empty for the past decade.

An L-shaped extension was added to the house in between 1965 and 1980, but rather than remove this later addition, the architects chose to rehabilitate it for modern use.

On the ground floor, rooms are now arranged around the raised wood-panelled tatami room, which is traditionally used for tea ceremonies.

A new kitchen has been installed along the corridor linking the hall to the family area.

The ground floor bathroom has been extended and panelled in wood.

Stairs lead up from the hall to a desk area, children’s bedroom and master bedroom.

A ladder reaches up into the attic, where the original roof beams are exposed and a rooflight has been added.

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Photographs are by Kai Nakamura Photography.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

This is a combined restoration/remodel of an old Kyo-machiya (Kyoto-style traditional urban dwelling) in north Kyoto city. It was built circa 1935 and had been empty for the last ten years. It is composed of the original structure (omoya) and a first-floor extension to the south and west sides circa 1965-80.

The floor plan and the finishing materials changed significantly through a series of haphazard modifications. However, there also existed some attractive elements that effectively captured the “timeline” of the house as it passed through this series of renovations.

In particular, the L-shaped addition created a novel linkage between the omoya and garden which would rarely be seen in a newly-built house.

The clients lived in San Francisco for 15 years prior to moving to Kyoto. From the onset, they had a clear demand (unusual for Japanese) for a home that combined authentic and aesthetically rewarding old elements with simple, undisruptive new ones.

In light of these demands, an approach to the project was developed: to re-realise these impromptu renovations and effectively incorporate them into a “next life” for the structure.

In summary:
1. reinforcement/repair of damaged portions,
2. capturing the feeling of an accumulated timeline,
3. sunken floor (doma) transition from omoya to outside/garden, and
4. utilising the extension area for daily living (e.g., kitchen, dining)

There exist two typical approaches to remodeling Kyo-machiya. One is to preserve only the basic structure (or shell) and modernise the interior. The second is to regard the structure as a traditional “artifact” and restore it to its original state.

Although I don’t intend to rate these two approaches, both share the perspective of focusing on one point in time (the present or the origin), and not considering the passage of time running through the home.

Many Kyo-machiya built in the early 20th century have undergone numerous renovations over the years, and these events are generally not acknowledged in the new design.

Unadmirable remodelings are often encountered, but they are indeed a part of the accumulated architectural history. I wonder if we can gently accept this timeline as valid, and “layer on” a new life rather than wiping an old one away.

Above: the house in 1935

“Timeline Machiya” was named by the client to represent the passing of time, both of the structure itself, but also of the project, from the initial consulting through to the construction and finishing.

Above: the house circa 1950

This secondary timeline was also deemed important, as a variety of design changes were made as the project progressed and the evolving structure revealed new approaches and ideas.

Above: the house circa 1965

Above: the house circa 1980

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Q-Architecture Laboratory appeared first on Dezeen.