Housing for a couple in sixties, located in the quiet residential area at the foot of a mountain in Osaka, where wide garden and traditional hedge are left.
We spent special attention to the building outward appearance and the harmony to the rows of houses on a street as well as to the indoor environment and living comfort.
One unit is formed by 4m square as the scale which wall doesn't make masssive impression. The 9 units are positioned like extending a branch to the whole site avoiding an existing well, an old plum tree and a huge garden rock. Each unit is connected not simply with the hallway. We aimed the gathered volumes will make a scenery like a village while satisfying interior layout and lifestyle.
It's difference from a stereotype two-story wooden house with a little upstairs volume on the large roof of downstairs. We intended each unit has the appropriate roof scale with the necessary height and direction, and in the result it seemingly looks an aggregation of random buildings.
The opening space between the units can make a moderate distance and privacy, and when walking around a room, the plant waving in the breeze through the window produces various relations of outdoor.
The exterior material of Galvalume steel plate considered with the durability was used different ways of horizontal and vertical for each face, so that it shows different expression on every small aspect and makes a view like assemblage of small units gathered by chance.
Once overlooking the building, it seems some small zigzag houses are collected at the base of a mountain and form a village-like with ambiguous site boundary.
It may indicate one of the harmony of the garden, the architecture and the streets.
[OUTLINE]
Architect: aoydesign
Structural design: Masaki Structural Laboratory
Facility design advice: Noriko Ito
Location: Osaka
Building area: 168.26m2
Floor area: 201.70m2
Structure: Wood, Tow-story
Completion: July, 2016
Constructor: Nakano builder
Planting: Green Space
Photos: aoydesign