House in Toyooka

2002, JUNE - 2003, DECEMBER

Architect: Kiyonobu Nakagame & Midori Omori
Structural Engineer: S.FORM structural design office
Contractor: Kikushima Co.Ltd
Structure: Reinforced Concrete Partialy Steel Structure, 3 stories

Photographs: Katsuhisa KIDA

Description
The house is located in the urbanized area in a suburb near downtown Yokohama city, the Japan’s second largest city. After walking though the small shopping district in front of the station nearby, one will find the neighborhood in which the house is built. Since　houses, offices, shops and temporary buildings coexist in the neighborhood　making it difficult to identify “the face” of this area、we thought that it would be appropriate for the house to look somewhat independent from its surroundings.
The house is consisted of three simple boxes piled up on each other. Each box is shifted horizontally in different directions to keep the appropriate distance from its surroundings and to comply with building code height restriction, as a result creating various spaces such as terraces and eaves. The glazed corridor space which encloses the living areas brings a gentle continuity within the building as if it worked as an intermediate space connecting the shifted boxes.