House in Takao

Tokyo, Japan

Single Houses

Architects: Airhouse / Keiichi Kiriyama

Location: 東京都八王子市高尾町, Tokyo, Japan
Year: 2019

The project for a house on a flagpole-shaped site surrounded by buildings. The client requested a wide open space where he could feel nature. The idea here was to first create a one-room space with a two-story atrium, then arrange the places in the following order: outside, outside with a roof, inside like outside, and completely inside, with a gradation from outside to inside toward the LDK in the center. From there, the private rooms are placed in a boarded-up volume dotted with rooms and connected to each other by bridges, ensuring privacy while allowing the family to feel nature wherever they are. The bridges are like lofts or corridors, and allow the residents to enjoy the pleasure of movement. One of the main features of the house is a large sliding door, 5 meters high, located in the north-south direction. When fully opened, the doors connect to the outside as if two layers of walls had been removed, allowing the wind to blow through all the rooms at once. This situation makes the entire house feel as if it were outside with a roof over its head, and the house is open yet closed, providing a sense of security and a richness that allows one to feel nature. The layout of the rooms and the fittings that delimit the boundaries were considered in this house to create a sense of distance with the family and a way of facing nature.