In past
60 years, as information technology progressively changed, in Japan, our
housing industry has rapidly adjusted to it.
This “forced adjustment” to our society has caused a transformation of
our traditional lifestyle, and housing space has been often talked by “nLDK” ;
n (number of private rooms) L (living) D (dining) K (kitchen). The concept of nLDK is to describe how much
value your house has. The spatial
flexibility and relationship (private and public) among n, L, D, and K are
separated and lost, and as a result, “function” started to walk alone.
Our
proposal to these two houses, “WITH” and “BEAT” are to try to re-consider and
re-organize a quality of relationship of nLDK to re-adjust to a current and a
future lifestyle.
Located
on a rural area in Gunma, Japan, this site is surrounded by aparticularenvironment, busy traffic on north, big flat farm
garden on west and east, and long line of tree of cherry blossom on south. The climate here is also unusual. In summer, this town records the hottest
temperature every year, and in winter, a strong gust wind from north and west blows
into this area.
To
live with this severe environment, young client family requested not only typical
ones, which are privacy, lot of natural light, good ventilation, and but also the
place where a family can feel being protected, sensitivity and motion. Beginning with this keywords and programs they
gave us, our solution to the house started to form.
First,
we imaged “a surrounded big hole” inside of a house as LDK. Originally, primitive human habited in a hole
(cave) because they have to protect themselves from a hazardous enemy and
environment. It’s not exactly similar to
what primitive human had, but to live in the hole (cave) was inevitable to our
progress of habitation. So, we used this
“hole” idea as a direction of a solution to initiate our design process.
The
5m double volume hole (LDK) exists as a family can share all activities such as
cooking, eating, playing, studying, and even running. Opposite to the hole (LDK) placed in the
center body of a house, private room zone (master bedroom and kid’s bedroom)
and service room zone (bathroom, toilet, and storage) are placed 600mm below
LDK, and they surround the hole (LDK) and act as a buffer zone between outside
and LDK to stabilize their day life from seasonal severe weather and traffic noise.
In addition, because private rooms,
service rooms and LDK are directly connected by just opening doors, a family
can easily access to each room and air ventilation that is one of the important
factors to this house can go through whole spaces.
Library
space, planting space, study space, and DJ space in the second floor are
connected to the double volume LDK space with no wall, creating a unity of
space and family activities.
Another
main character of this house is the 2m x 5m fix high window placed in the upper
level. It gives a view to the sky from
LDK down stair, and also strengthens the sensitivity of being in the hole that
makes a family to be protected. Surely
it provides an enough natural light even cloudy weather. In spring, this window becomes a picture
frame of cherry blossom trees that are one of the Japanese traditional
trees. In summer time, the corridor in
upper level becomes an eave to protect from a direct sunlight, and in winter
time, sun can penetrate into the kitchen to warm up LDK space.
Over
the window, there is a terrace where a family can enjoy talking, playing,
taking a break, and eating BBQ with friends.
Since
we had to find a solution at low cost budget, an exterior skin had to be one
material. Considered to its natural
landscape, we thought the house should be a mass and a unity object and chose
black which makes its existence disappear in the natural environment. To do
this, we wanted to reflect the form against nature.
In
the suburban area, opposite to the urban area like Tokyo, people have a lot of opportunities to
have a relationship to nature everyday. Here we started to design how a house can keep
standing against particular environment.