秋山建築設計／秋山隆男 Fu-1 house (明和の家)

The house is located in a country side where you can see vegetable fields and mountains from couple minutes of walk away although the surrounding is pretty filled residential area. When I started this project, I found the rich and unique aspect of the climate of this region that I wanted to express in the design; in the winter the cold wind blows down onto the city and in the summer the sudden rain falls with thunders.

The methodology of architecture is becoming more and more complicated day by day. However, I sometimes question to myself “Does a house really need that complicated approach?”
When you seriously face to simple thought of designing a house which fits to the primitive demands such as avoid rain and cold wind, shields the strong sunlight, my answer is No, simply one component “eave” can construct residential architecture. In the tradition of Japanese houses, the eaves play an important role. In Japan,they appear often to prevent the heavy rain of fall and the end of spring and harsh sunbeam of summer. You also can find lines of poems saying about the nostalgic scene that people stay under the eaves watching rain drops when the sudden rain hits.

The entire site is wrapped with the roof, wall or floor, and only the center court is open up to create “eave” effect.
It has reinforced concrete structure and I didn’t want a wall on the side of the yard, therefore there are supporting iron columns which also work as window frames.
All the elements are directly painted onto concrete with water-&-heat-proofing material. Only the floor does not have the heat-proofing function because of the floor heating system in it.

It is not only this project but I always keep my works simple. It is because when you delete unnecessary elements, it’ll be clearer what you really want to show. I love movies and they have diverse methods of expressions, for example the scenery, story line, sound effect… etc. However my favorite movies don’t have many of those techniques. Those ones often don’t have background music or any detailed explanations, or were shot with monochrome films. My favorite movie director, Yasujiro Ozu told the actors “Don’t say the lines with emotions. The emotions are spoken by the scenario.” When you avoid all the unnecessary decorations, in other words, when you try to show something in the simpler form, you will see something new and bright.

Although architecture is consisted with a number of different geometry, materiality, and colors, I believe the beauty of simplicity. Even the shade lying on the simple shapes has its own aesthetics. At certain level, I always wish to address those beauties of the surrounding elements. In addition, another important concern for me is how to situate its residents in the project. I know the beauty of human body movements. To me architecture is not a show of the piece; it is an opportunity in which people experience with the combination of natural environment and the users.

In this project, the building sits along the perimeter of the property line. In the contemporary situations, it reminds me of soccer fields that are surrounded with the eaves. The clients play tennis so I explained them that it would be like a center court at the Wimbledon Championship. The grass center yard is not a main character in this project. It doesn’t have a symbol tree or benches. The component which supposed to be the seats for the spectators is dedicated for the main volume of the house, the garage, and the walkway, all of which are designed with the same formal language. Since there is not fixed hierarchy between all elements, for example the garage can be a room with a sheet of glass enclosing the aperture, I am always trying to leave possibilities for the future use.

Interior also don’t have too much intensions. In general, a house has a living room for relaxing, a kitchen for cooking, and a bedroom for sleeping, meaning the architect limits the usage. But the actual living is a lot more flexible. Not everyone have meals at dining room all the time. This example is also from movie, one main character from a French movie was living in his bathtub. He eats and reads in the bathtub. Like this example, when the occupants do certain activities, they unconsciously choose the most comfortable place for it in the house, like the stairs are the device to go up and down but if you wish you can sit on and watch TV and it becomes your living room.
In this project, consciously I played with this concept; layering the different possibilities for the area. It is aiming for the flexible comfort at the all corner of the house.
The powder room can be used as a reading room as well. Generally speaking, people wash the faces and brush their teeth in the room and don’t use it other time. Reversely talking, the clients don’t care how it’s used at the other time as long as they can brush their teeth and wash their faces. In the room, there is a cantilever table which has double functions; one is a washbasin, and another is a working desk with a power outlet for a computer. Sitting at the table, a bathroom that meant to not look like a bathtub can be seen over a glass wall and even over the bathroom a smaller court yard is there. Of course there is a fridge for beer behind the table for longer relaxation.
Another example is the bedroom without a bed. In the night, they put the futon on the floor, so that the room becomes home theater in the daytime.
When I think of kitchen, I try to depart from the kitchenish-looking kitchen. In this case, it is designed to be kitchen and a lantern. Those changes between daytime and nighttime are something that I always keep in my mind.

Those multi-function/flexibilities can be often found in Japanese architecture. Back in days it is common for us to eat, relax, and sleep in s single tatami-matted room. The memory is perhaps strongly influencing to my design attitude.

As I said earlier the garage, enclosed volume and walkway between then don’t have any hierarchy, neither is each room. Under this situation, I think the circulation is important. I paid careful attention to the flow like you drive back home and go to the entrance via the walkway. The final plan has two paths to the entrance; one is walk along the walkway under the eaves, and the other is walk along the wall behind the walkway. this is also good example of flexibility.

Interior measurement is based on the 3m-width which the inhabitants can feel the length of the house rather than width and that also minimum number people can freely occupy. From the entrance to each room to the bathroom at the end, you can see the center yard at any moment on your right. For the smooth transition from one room to another, there are not walls in the direction to prevent the stream. All the doors are sliding doors and foldable doors except the one in bathroom- bathroom has glass door.

The sequence of eye movement to the exterior is as important as to the interior. There are several tricks that some points catch your eye to outside. Standing by the kitchen, on the left you can see the neighbor’s garden and on the other side you can see the stairs to the rooftop and the small rock yard under the stairs. This is also can be a pond which brings cooler view in the summer. Also there is couple more of those spots in the outside. When you enter the house, you can see the trees of neighbors. This is called shakkei (borrowing scenery) in Japanese.
Actually this building tries not to deny the surrounding houses which are not well-designed. However coexisting with those and let them be is another keyword for this project.

Data

- Construction area: Japan
- Building use: Single-family house
- Site area: 390.10 m2
- Building area: 147.99 m2
- Gross floor area: 158.92 m2
- Construction: Reinforced concrete structure
- Family composition: couple and one child