Hasta La Ideas

Japanese firm Horibe Associates has completed this combined home and dog-grooming salon in Japan’s Ōita prefecture (+ slideshow).

The house by Horibe Associates is located on a long, thin plot surrounded by rice fields and features a mono-pitched roof.

One end of the building has a living space for a small family, who run their business from a salon at the other end of the building.

“Because the line of sight extends unbroken from the shop entrance back through the garden, the space feels larger than it actually is,” said the architects.

A living and dining room is located towards the back of the house, with views out on to a courtyard garden.

In the same space there is a daybed located beneath a small mezzanine room that can be accessed by a wooden staircase.

Curtains are used throughout the building to separate the internal spaces.

Bathrooms and a kitchen are located in the centre of the house. They can be easily accessed from both the salon and the house at either end of the building.

Toward the front of the salon, a small internal window on the mezzanine floor overlooks a dog-trimming room.

The architects have made concrete floors and plywood ceilings a feature to reduce costs. The building covers 66.25 square metres and sits within a larger 325.41 square metre site.

Last year at Design Miami 2012 architects and designers including Kengo Kuma, Toyo Ito, Shigeru Ban, MVRDV and Konstantin Grcic designed a series of architectural structures just for dogs.

Popular Japanese houses we’ve posted recently on Dezeen include a family home that’s only 2.7 metres wide, a white shed-like abode raised up on pilotis and a family home with a sweeping canopy.

See more Japanese houses »
See more stories about animals »
See more residential architecture »

Photographer: Kaori Ichikawa

Key to diagrams:

1. Waiting room
2. Trimming room
3. Entrance
4. Lavatory and washroom
5. Bathroom
6. Living and dining room and kitchen
7. Day bed
8. Terrace

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Horibe Associates appeared first on Dezeen.

Japanese architect Kazuhiko Kishimoto has combined a doctor’s surgery and a courtyard house in a bulky building with tapered concrete feet (+ slideshow).

Located in Kanagawa, Japan, Lifted-Garden House was designed by Kazuhiko Kishimoto with a two-storey clinic on one side, a first-floor doctor’s apartment opposite and a courtyard and roof terrace inbetween.

“The clinic and dwelling place are placed across from each other with the inner courtyard in the middle, however the direction of the eyes would not meet since they are on different levels,” says the architect.

The exterior walls feature a mixture of bare concrete and timber slats, with the solid concrete pillars supporting the overhanging first floor.

The courtyard beyond is filled with trees and shrubs, while the first-floor terrace is covered in timber decking and features plants that sprout from pockets of gravel.

This deck can be accessed from both the apartment and the clinic, plus its timber surface continues into the building to create a consistent ground plane.

White-painted bars divide up the spaces within the residence, continuing the vertical rhythm of the timber slats on the facade.

The clinic features frosted glass screens that partially cover the windows, creating privacy while allowing views out to the greenery.

“We expect the trees to grow big and to provide nice leafy shade in summer, making a place of relief for the doctor and patients,” says Kishimoto.

We previously featured another house by Kazuhiko Kishimoto, with a rear facade that slides open to reveal a graduated terrace with a sweeping view of the sea.

Earlier this year we published a two-storey house that has been combined with a pet shop, also located in Japan.

See all our stories about Japanese houses »
See more stories about medical architecture »

Photography is by Hiroshi Ueda.

Here’s a project description from the architect:

This is the complex building with clinic on the first floor and the doctor’s dwelling place on the second floor. With the tree planting that bring better feeling to patients in the inner courtyard, they can be viewed from the lobby and entrance of the clinic.

Furthermore, as the trees can also be seen from outside of the building through the deck, people walking by should also be able to feel the seasons change.

The dwelling place on the second floor is placed as if it is floating above the parking space. The dwelling place is L-shaped opposite to the clinic. The clinic and dwelling place are placed across each other with the inner courtyard in the middle however the directions of the eyes would not meet since they are in the different levels.

The roof of the clinic is an open area as the rooftop garden. Various types of plants and trees are established on the stair-like wood deck with different levels. The floor of the dwelling place continuing flat to wood deck is the outcome of the careful consideration into details.

The deep and low canopy top makes the proportion of the beautiful building. It also relates immensely to producing the sense of openness to the rooftop. We expect the trees to grow big and to provide nice leafy shade in summer, making a place of relief for the doctor and patients.

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Kazuhiko Kishimoto/acaa appeared first on Dezeen.

Japanese studio FORM/Kouichi Kimura Architects has completed a family house in Shiga, Japan, that is 27 metres long but only 2.7 metres wide (+ slideshow).

Faced with an extremely long and narrow site, architect Kouichi Kimura designed both floors of the two-storey Promenade House with a simple layout, where sequences of rooms are connected by long corridors.

Most rooms open out to a corridor, making use of all available space. “As you proceed along the hallway you will see the spaces spread out, one after another,” said the architect.

A kitchen, dining area and living room occupy one space on the ground floor and feature windows that line the edges of the floor.

Steps at the back lead to a raised double-height study with a large rear window and a skylight overhead. A ladder leads from the study to the floor above, although residents can also use a staircase at the front of the house.

The corridor on the upper floor is divided in two. Silver curtains screen bedrooms and storages areas at one end, while the bathrooms are surrounded by turquoise walls, intended to give “an impression of cleanliness”.

Another double-height room is also contained on this floor and brings in light through clerestory windows. The architects refer to this space as a balcony, even though it’s completely enclosed by exterior walls.

Several polished concrete surfaces crop up though the building, while the floor in the living room is built from wood.

Kouichi Kimura set up his studio in Shiga in 1991. Other residential projects by the architect include House of Representation, which features a large light chimney, and House of Silence, designed to be deliberately alien to its neighbours.

See more architecture by FORM/Kouichi Kimura Architects »
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Photography is by Takumi Ota.

Read on for a project description from the architects:

Promenade House

The project is for the house owned by a young couple and is planned at the unique site 4 metres wide and 35 metres deep.

The geometrical restriction of the site is reflected in the internal composition of the house. The building, with a width of 2.7 metres and a total length of 27 metres, is laid out in accordance with the narrow site to draw its outline.

The internal space has been planned to have a long narrow hallway, with which your body senses the site geometry. As you proceed along the hallway you will see the spaces spread out one after another.

The long hallway is extended from the entrance on the first floor, led by the footlight through the dining and living rooms, and connected to the raised study at the very end. It reaches to the idyllic view seen through the large opening of the study where the tapered line of sight from the entrance is opened up.

On the second floor, two hallways are planned to be extended from the staircase that has a top light. One has a green wall aiming for colour effect. The vivid green hallway surrounds the balcony, giving an impression of cleanliness to the adjacent bathroom and washroom.

The other is connected from the kid room through the bed room to the bridge at the open-ceiling space. It is designed to control light; the light through the light transmissive curtain separating the kid room, or the sunlight from the high-side light in the open ceiling space leads you forward.

The end of the hallway becomes a bridge, and the ladder installed there connects the upper and lower spaces to produce continuity.

The green wall is used at both ends of the building, providing more impressiveness of the total length. The hallways laid out in this house are the promenades that strongly impress the site geometry.

Architects: FORM/Kouichi Kimura Architects
Location: Shiga, Japan
Client: Private

Construction Year: 2013
Site Area: 166,08 sqm
Constructed Area: 124,3 sqm

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Kouichi Kimura Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

A facade designed to look like a picture frame outlines a courtyard garden at this house in Hiroshima by Japanese studio UID Architects.

Named Frame, the two-storey house was designed by UID Architects with a two-layer facade, comprising a black outer skin with a clean white wall behind. The courtyard garden is slotted in between and forms the house’s entrance.

The pebbled floor of the courtyard continues into the house, wrapping around a wooden staircase that runs along behind the windows.

Bedroom and bathroom areas sit on the ground floor, while the first floor opens out into a spacious living and dining room with a study on one side.

Light penetrates the house through a long narrow skylight that spans the roof, as well as through large openings in the facade.

“In this house you’re able to live feeling the gentle breeze and daily sunlight as much as possible,” say the architects.

We’ve featured five residences designed by UID Architects, including a house where circular hollows create sunken rooms and a timber home constructed at the foot of a mountain.

See more houses by UID Architects »
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Photography is by Hiroshi Ueda.

Here’s a project description from UID Architects:

Frame

The house aims the space such as one integral room which is 7m×7m+X. There are bedroom and guest room, washroom and bathroom in the ground floor, also LDK and study room on second floor because of referencing around site environment surrounded 3 ways. Basically the house is designed like one integral room which is 7m×7m while considering to make each space as small as possible.

In addition to that, the yard space set to road which connect to outside as extension of interior wall. Therefore we can feel the extra space more than physical extent space.

Furthermore by setting this wall, it can connect to outside of area smoothly as ensure the privacy. On the second floor, it could be possible to get lighting inside without affection by around site environment from the top light which exists north to south. Regarding yard, we can feel south side lightning from LDK to study room integrally by setting yard on north to south. And also it could be comfortable study room owing to constant sunlight of north direction by locating study room to north side. In this house it’s able to live as feeling gentle breeze and daily under the natural sunlight as much as possible in interior room.

Architects: UID architects – Keisuke Maeda
Consultants: Konishi Structural Engineers, Toshiya Ogino Environment Design Office
General contractor: Hotta Construction Co.Ltd.

Structural system: wood structure
Used materials: wooden flooring (flooring), spandrel (wall), plaster board (ceiling)

Location: Hiroshima-City, Hiroshima, Japan
Site area: 132.23 sqm
Built area: 57.85 sqm
Total floor area: 111.43 sqm
Date of completion: January, 2012

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UID Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

This guest house consists of interconnected boxes that meander between the trunks of cherry and pine trees in a forest near Yonago City, Japan (+ slideshow).

Architect Keisuke Kawaguchi designed the house to fit into gaps between the existing trees, taking advantage of the available space without disrupting the natural surroundings.

“Sensitive dialogue with the site is requisite to building a house that lies in coexistence with nature,” says Kawaguchi. “Our building plan was drafted according to this idea.”

Roofs pitched at different angles squeeze beneath tree branches and add to the building’s staccato aesthetic, while short corridors link the functional spaces.

The largest volume contains a living space with double-height windows looking out onto a series of terraces and the forest beyond.

The house is raised off the ground on pillars to prevent snow from drifting against it in winter, and to stop moisture and heat from the ground penetrating the floors in summer.

Other architecture projects built in forests include a series of woodland cabins in Portugal, a tiny folly that pokes out from between trees at the edge of a pond in England, and a raised walkway that winds around tree trunks in an Estonian forest.

We recently created a Pinterest board with all our stories about Japanese houses, including one comprising five connected cottages in a forest and another with two trees installed in its living room.

Photography is by Koji Fujii.

Here’s some more information from the architect:

This is a guest house located in the forest of Daisen piedmont, Yonago City, Tottori Prefecture.

The house site is situated in the midst of abundant cherry and pine trees, standing at natural well-balanced intervals with trunks reaching towards the sky with bountiful leaves. The figures of the trees are beautiful. They are the legitimate habitants of the forest.

Sensitive dialogue with the site is requisite to building a house that lies in coexistence with nature. Our building plan was drafted according to this idea.

We arranged the house with most surrounding trees untouched and ensured the living space in the aperture to a maximum extent.

A style coexisting with the forest is the keystone of our design, so we carefully surveyed and analyzed the lot for building, and designed a way to connect each function space of the house by short connecting passages.

Differently-pitched roofs snuggling up to the extension of branches and foliage made it possible to take in sunlight effectively.

In Daisen we have almost two metres of snowfall in winter, so we adopted a piloti style with living spaces on the second floor in order to allow ample cross-breeze, while also reducing moisture and heat rising from the ground in summer. These considerations made it possible to maintain comfortable living conditions in all seasons.

The forms and colours of the forest seen from each room are as deep as the eye can see. Bright (red), tangible (white), obscure (blue), dark (black) – we may call them the colours of the day.

The changing seasons create a bountiful, colourful composition! How satisfying is the abundance of passing time that the forest beats when living in this house!

Even after the house completes its life in the future, the forest around it would continue on.

Finally, our primary endeavour, coexisting with the forest, would be fulfilled.

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Kawaguchi+K2-Design appeared first on Dezeen.