House in Kamakura
Back to Projects list- Location
- Kamakura, Japan
- Year
- 2022
In praise of gable roof – As a style commonly used in many buildings, gable roof has been widely adopted in the history of architecture. Its use and effect has been countless and enormous. It is the same old, yet the most commonly adopted style to blend and dissolve a building into a townscape. The rational weathering capability of gable roof has been proven trustworthy particularly in mountainous areas. However, this style was adopted in this project for the reasons far beyond its problem-solving ability.
We think the most essential characteristic of gable roof lies in its iconic nature. The abstract form with a powerful, bold presence of gable roof can unify building components into a single package as a "house" in a symbolic gesture.
The first floor of this house is constructed in a reinforced concrete structure, while a slightly larger volume produced in wooden structure is placed on top of the first floor volume along with a gable roof.
The first floor structure consists of rooms used for auxiliary functions such as work and hobby (ie. home office or tea room). The second floor contains rooms for essential functions such as living, dining, bedroom and bathroom, and those rooms are unified to be enclosed under the gable roof. The second floor level is crystalized as an archetype of a "house" by borrowing the power of gable roof, which is then lifted up as if like a "mikoshi (portable shrine body)" to be placed on top of the reinforced concrete structure of the first floor volume also functioning as a podium.
Recently, daily lifestyles of people have changed by the pandemic, and the styles of house design have also become more diverse. Even so, each house is always colored by the one residing in the house, according to their "will for living". The owner had a strong will and intention to start a new life in Kamakura after moving from an apartment in Tokyo. This "will for living" took a shape of a house with gable roof, in praise of its power and presence.