The house is in a quiet residential area of Kunitachi, Tokyo.
The challenge is to explore the potentials of urban housing by designing the house and garden simultaneously while expanding the role the garden in relation to the function of the house. All rooms and gardens are arranged in a checkered pattern which gardens provide openness and light to every adjacent rooms. The checkered layout also eliminates dark, closed spaces throughout the site and along neighboring houses. Gardens become the site for future expansion of each rooms. The house invites changes in floor plan, number of families, as well as relocating walls and floor area in cases when the rooms are partially leased.
The gardens also affect the emotional distance between the family members. They requested a space that one could spend its own time, while slightly feeling someone's presence inside the house. Rather than providing one large living room and garden where all gathers, I decided to divide the space into smaller rooms and gardens so that each family member could pick its own space and keep a comfortable distance between each other.
In the center of the house, a long corridor penetrates from north to south. The front street could be seen from the window at the end of the corridor and activities in and out of the house overlaps. In each window facing the garden, a bench and desk is set for the family to spend time near the gardens. You could feel greatly a presence of not only someone, but also natural aspects such as wind and light that enters through the gardens and rooms. The garden changes its appearance every season, which relatively the adjacent room changes its atmosphere. This is a house where the garden and life grow together.