House K/T
tombow architects
ARCHITECTS
Tombow Architects
ENGINEERING & CONSULTING > STRUCTURAL
Oha
LEAD ARCHITECT
Yusuke Kobayashi
GENERAL CONSTRUCTING
Yamauchi Construction Firm
PHOTOGRAPHS
Norihito Yamauchi
AREA
109 M²
YEAR
2024
LOCATION
Japan
CATEGORY
Houses, Renovation
Text description provided by architect.
This is a renovation project of a 45-year-old detached house on a sloping site in the Tama Hills. This renovation will maximize the spatial appeal of the existing building without changing the overall form and layout of the building.
The building will be developed to provide living space for a family of four and the designer's own studio.
Most boundaries that divide spaces are defined by partitions that separate rooms and connect them with openings and fixtures.
Before the renovation, the plan of this building was similarly solved, with each room having a one-to-one relationship with the south-facing view and the courtyard terrace.
Therefore, the idea was to edit the boundaries of the space and redefine the entire house, while keeping the arrangement and shape of the rooms as they were.
First, to make the most of the existing building's U-shape, the partitions between the living room, dining room, and hallway were repositioned to allow views, light, and air to flow around the courtyard.
Next, a new entrance to the studio and exit to the courtyard were built on the first floor, and a stairwell was built in the basement to serve as a flow line to the studio.
A visual connection from the outside to the inside was created.
When editing the boundary surfaces, the focus is not only on walls and openings, but also on fixtures, furniture, stairs, materials, structural members, and other elements related to the boundary surfaces.
All these elements are treated equally and reconstructed regardless of their size or whether they are old or new boundaries.
The overlapping of objects on the site gives a greater sense of relationship to the surroundings, transforming the entire house into a space that seems to be an integral part of the sloping terrain.
We expect that this architecture, which is connected to the outside world without stopping the time that the building has passed through, will continue to change in the future, using the newly acquired boundary surface as a clue.
