Strucrural consultant: Akira Ouchi, S.FORM
Construction: SEEDS CASA
Photographer: Kei Sugino
The site is the last plot divided from the original site including the three adjoining plots. The small triangular form of the site with strict setback regulation from the facing two roads and north side of the site, caused trouble planning a house, so that the site had been used just for a parking lot of three cars for long time. On the other hand, the site is located diagonally opposite a public park, the rich greenery of which can be seen from the site. The house was designed to realize legally maximum building volume, responding to the surrounding conditions, especially small nature in a city.
The clients are a couple of a museum curator and an art historian. The entrance was proposed like an exhibition room in a museum, because the entrance should represent what the residents are. The green wall also suggests nature for this tiny house without a sufficient garden. On the second floor is the z-shaped space for the kitchen and living / dining room with a small triangular terrace, in which the nature could be felt like a Japanese traditional spot garden ‘Tsubo-niwa’. This ‘Tsubo-niwa’ terrace also serves as a buffer against the view from the high-rise apartment across the road. From the dining room, a sculptural white stair can be seen in contrast with the green wall extended from the entrance downstairs. The strip corner windows of the living room are set at the height of the leaves of the trees in the park across the roads.
The structure of the house is mainly wooden construction, partially reinforced by steel beams and columns. Additionally a concrete wall is symbolically inserted to show where the entrance is on the ground floor. The entrance eave wrapping around the southeast corner of the house, covers the exterior path to the small garden from the entrance.