Making the best use of the existing houses is the one of the most valuable solutions for sustainability in the world. Lots of houses of woods which are good to live in if they are adequately maintained are left out or demolished in Japan as well as in the world. Compared to the houses of concretes, steels, and stones, however, houses of woods might need more repairing if they are inhabited for more than ten or twelve years.
Architects: YDS Architects
Team Members: Yoshitaka Uchiuno, Mana Muraki
Country: Japan
Status: Built
Thinking about the sustainability of architectures and cities, taking care of the energy consumptions and effectively utilizing materials are highly demanded all over the world. Though designing the existing houses so that they are renewed in parts and would be lived for another fifty, possibly, hundred years is the best way of keeping the global environment. Regenerating architectures leads to stacking and expanding the stocks of the cities and towns. Their histories and environments lives to the next generation and these facts would contribute to the cultures and represents diversity.
Making the wood structure strengthened as well as beautifully designed while taking care of the characteristics of wood frames is the main theme of this project.
The owner of the house wants it be renovated because her family would live with his mother. They wanted to expand the house to add the rooms. Instead of making the additional building in the small garden, the terrace is created in the small garden which is next to the main room functions as an outdoor room for them.
Considering the existing columns and beams to design the house, the beams play the principal role. The existing beams are placed at random, nevertheless, the new beams are added to the frame to strengthen the structure which would bring about the sense of order and express the transitional beauty reflecting the light and creating shadows.
Two beams are designed as lighting equipment, the woods and the light would unify in this space. The overhung stairs of woods would create flow of spaces from the entrance to the rooms in the second floor via the main room. The desk and handrail of woods designed using the existing columns represents the conversation between the old and the new.
The wood terrace enfolded by the wood wall is isolated from the nearby environment. Children would happily enjoy themselves and the family would hold barbecue party. A tree planted in the terrace symbolize the nature.
A house with clear concepts may be very different from houses nearby. Designing such a house may be driving a wedge in the given context of the city,though, the wood wall with a tree serves the harmony with the existing city which results in the symbiosis with the environment.
Nature and the wood frames stimulating with each other,spaces would expand to infinity. One would feel the strength and warmth of woods, and the unified beauty of woods,light, and nature.
