Hasta La Ideas

This concrete house in Hiedaira, Shiga Prefecture, Japan, by Kyoto firm Thomas Daniell Studio, is located next door to the house and studio we published on Dezeen last week (see our earlier story here).

The entire building is made of exposed reinforced concrete, including the gabled roof, which has been treated to make it waterproof.

Built on a sloping piece of land, the house is a single storey at the front and expands into two stories at the rear.

Large windows in the bedroom and living room provide views of the surrounding landscape, which includes a national park.

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The following information is from the architects:

HOUSE IN HIEIDAIRA

This is a single-family house designed for a lush natural setting a new subdivision in the mountains above Kyoto.

The site slopes away to the north, facing onto a National Park, with a view across a forest toward Mt Hiei (the most sacred mountain in Japanese Buddhism).

In compliance with new building regulations that mandate orthogonal walls and gabled roofs, the house takes the form of a nagaya (traditional row house): a linear sequence of rooms contained in a long, narrow volume aligned perpendicular to the street.

The house expands in section to follow the slope: single-story at the street façade, expanding to two stories at the rear of the site.

This allows the gabled roof shape to define the interior spaces rather than simply sit on top of them. The bedrooms are half buried, whereas the living area is oriented toward the mountains.

The historical nagaya type is a response to the narrow, deep sites in congested inner-city Kyoto, with little or no space between buildings, but in this semi-rural location the lot has been divided in half longitudinally, with building and garden set parallel and having approximately the same width and footprint.

The rooms are arranged as a band running along the western edge of the site, enabling natural light penetration into each room.

The location of the building gives maximum separation from the neighbor to the east, and hence maximum sunlight in the garden area that remains.

The overall nagaya form remains as abstract as possible, made entirely from bare concrete.

The roof has no cladding or surface membrane (an invisible waterproofing compound has been applied to the exposed slab) and there are no projecting eaves, making the house volume akin to something sliced from a block of tofu.

There are no drains, downspouts, or gutters — or more precisely, the entire roof plane has been subtly shaped to become an enormous rainwater channel.

The roof perimeter slopes gently upwards, creating subtle parapets that prevent water from falling down the long walls, channeling it all to the building’s north and south ends where it may fall freely to the ground.

Architect: Thomas Daniell (assistants: Fumihiko Nakamura, Mike Heighway)

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Contractor: Shimizu Corporation
Location: Hieidaira, Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture, Japan

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Program: Single family house (2 adults, 2 children)
Area: 136m2 (two stories)

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Construction: September 2008-May 2009
Structure: reinforced concrete

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House in Hieidaira by Tato Architects	Himeji Observatory House by KINO architects	A House Awaiting Death by EASTERN Design Office

Wooden steps lead to an attic with irregular sloping walls in this residence for an artist in Shiga, Japan, by Japanese studio Tato Architects.

The wood-panelled attic space is connected to the main residence of House in Hiedaira by apertures in the leaning surfaces, which look down into the main living space below.

A separate workshop building for the client’s work sits adjacent and slightly forward from the house, taking the same gabled form.

The two-storey wooden structure is clad completely in corrugated polycarbonate panels.

Photographs are by Satoshi Shigeta unless otherwise stated.

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The following information is from the architects:

The residence is located at the foot of Mt. Hiei near the border of Kyoto and Shiga.

Above photograph is by Tato Architects

The client is an artist, who needed an atelier and a home for his family, as well as a place for his parents whom he wishes to live together in the future.

With a regulation that mandates sloped roofs, the site is surrounded by gable-roofed houses which seem to provide a sense of calmness in the neighborhood.

Above photograph is by Tato Architects

Accordingly, we developed a plan that fits to the surrounding environment of this hillside residential area. The site was not large enough to accommodate all the needs of the client.  In addition, we were informed that an atelier may cause noise and odor.

Above photograph is by Tato Architects

Taking these constraints into consideration, we developed a plan in which three independent cottage-style houses–an atelier and two mini houses (one for the client’s family and the other for his parents)–are arranged in such a way to share the watering and drainage area.

The construction of the atelier was simplified to meet the low-budget limitation.

Above photograph is by Tato Architects

Cement excelsior boards, serving as fire-resistant thermal insulators and bearing wall structures, were attached to the structure, which were then covered with corrugated polycarbonate plates.

Thermal storage using night time electricity is buried under the ground to provide underfloor heat through the foundation. Bare concrete is used as the finished floor.

Likewise, walls and roofs is bare structural materials, which makes it allows the artist/client himself to renovate the building according to the clientÅfs changing needs.

Above photograph is by Tato Architects

The large opening is created on the north side of the building to provide natural sunlightillumination. In addition, cement excelsior board can be removed to receive sunlight from various parts of the walls.

Above photograph is by Yousuke Takeda

The size and arrangement of windows of the two dwelling houses are scaled to follow the proportion of conventional cottage style, which has an effect of making the houses look smaller than they actually are.

The ground level floors of these houses are simply finished with mortar in order to efficiently transmit the heat from the thermal storage system under the foundation.

Above photograph is by Yousuke Takeda

Lauan plywood is used for the interior walls, part of which are painted white by the client himself. The second floor does not need huge room, but needs sufficient space.

If a vertical wall is built, the wall divides the second floor to a very small room and void area. Therefore, instead of a vertical wall, a wall is built to give required space to the rooms.

Above photographs is by Tato Architects

The lean wall becomes roof-like-ceiling as well as hill-like-floor dividing the second floor space.

The lean wall also looks like a cottage accommodating another small cottage inside. Normally, a cottage is regarded that inside and outside is the same.

In this case, the cottage is not very simple accommodating another cottage inside like crystal.

Project information

Project name: House in hieidaira
Location: Shiga Japan
Site area: 490.00m2

Building area: 116.01m2
Total floor area: 186.14m2
Type of Construction: Wooden

Designed by Yo Shimada.
Design period : Apr. 2008 – Dec. 2009
Construction period : Dec. 2009 – Apr. 2010

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House K by Yoshichika Takagi	House in Fukawa by Suppose Design Office	Belly House by Tomohiro Hata

Japanese studio Ninkipen! have completed a family house in Nara, Japan, comprising staggered rectangular volumes.

A skylight pierces both floors of the residence to draw light down into the kitchen.

The open-plan interior is finished in white, with wooden flooring and detailing.

There are no doors inside the house, instead rooms flow into one another through interconnected doorways.

The living spaces and one bedroom are located on the ground floor with a further two rooms on the next floor, each adjoining a roof terrace.

Photographs are by Hiroki Kawata.

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Here’s some more information from the architects:

This is a small residence for a couple with one child, situated in Nara, Japan.

The neighborhood is determined by a large number of individual houses spread over a gentle slope facing south.

During the design process, the lot right beside was yet empty and it was unclear what was going to be built.

Therefore, the design had to be autonomous, but at the same time it should be able to react positively on whatever was going to be built next door.

The volume of the house is constituted of an uneven volume, split and shifted both in ground plan and elevation into sub-volumes that are visually separated, but connected through continuous lighting and ventilation.

The interior space is characterized by interconnected cubes with no doors, privacy is ensured by deliberate nooks and narrowings between the rooms.

Even though the house is with 80.84 m2 relatively small, the continuous spaces that always let anticipate the following room, convey a sense of larger extent.

Project name
80.84
Architect
YASUO IMAZU/ninkipen! Architect office

Use: house
Location: Nara, Japan

Process

Design　2008.2-2008.7
Construction　2008.8-2009.3

Scale
Site area 134.57m2
Building area 65.24m2
Total floor area 80.84m2

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House of Resonance by FORM/Kouichi Kimura	Mole by Ninkipen!	Rroomm by Ninkipen!

A slide is hidden behind the mirrored wall in this Tokyo office by Japanese studio Schemata Architecture Office.

The shoot can be accessed by climbing a ladder up to the top of the bathroom and storage area.

The office is intended for just five people and features a reflective dome, 3.4metres in diameter, which hangs from the ceiling over a meeting area to project light and contain sound.

A mirrored wall at one end of the rectangular office makes the space appear larger.

Photographs are by Takumi Ota.

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Here’s a bit of text from the architects:

MR_DESIGN OFFICE

I planned about 190 square meters office only for 5 people. I designed only 2 kind of parts, furniture and infrastructure not to separate a large room into some small room.

So you can feel 190 square meters in any places in this office.

And it’s notable that the lighting with 3.4m parabolic reflector can reflect not only the light but also sound. So this meeting space doesn’t need any partition.

The Lighting for The Meeting Room

I duplicate bright natural light from metal halide lighting system. And the lighting system can make no shadow.

Because parabolic reflector can make diffuse reflection. And parabolic reflector can increase the voice between each separate seats only under the reflector.

Bench

We convert from 4 chairs into 1 bench. The each leg of a bench is transparent because of made of epoxy resin.

Base Lighting System

We made the base lighting system by spliting a spiral tube in two. Because we want to match the reflectors to other ductworks ceiling.

Site: Shibuya ward Tokyo
Principal use: Office
Structure: RC
Floor area: 188.20m²

Construction: Eiger
Furniture: E&Y Epoxy Syuhei Nakamura
Technical cooperation: Izumi Okayasu
Completion: Jun.2010

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Japanese architects Hidetaka Shirako and Shin Yokoo of OUVI have completed a low, gabled house in Tokyo, Japan. (more…)