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Houses • Nasushiobara, Japan Architects: Ken Yokogawa Architect & Associates ; Landscape architects: Nakatani Koichiro Atelier - Koichiro Nakatani

Area Area of this architecture project Area: 135 m²

Year Completion year of this architecture project Year: 2013

Photographs photographs: Shinkenchiku-sha Co, Ken Yokogawa

Text description provided by the architects. A word, “cow shed”, shown in a title might sound strange, but it is because I , who named it, simply think so. Of course, it is not a cow shed, but a proper residence, but it was named because of its condition and a sense of volume that the architecture has. It is located in Nasushiobara. It is not a country villa, but a building for a permanent dwelling.

The shape of the architecture is “beginning of architecture”, namely, a base point and is a gate directing at nature. The site is located at a dead end place, when a street turns in a right angle, on a small hill of a newly developed residential district, which is 10 kilometers southwest of Nasushiobara station. That is, beyond the point there is only a natural forest open to the south. Therefore, the architecture is a gate towards the forest.

“Yes, just like Geoffrey Bawa ……”

The gate is in 26 meters in the total length, rising up for 4.5 meters from ground level for a wall height. A polyhedron roof rises for further two meters up, so it has a volumetric scale that is unlike from ordinary residences. A blocking wall has a hole that penetrates a road and green of the forest can peek.

Though the site sets deep green forest in its front, in reality, it was in a triangular shape that a view is open towards the east side. I wanted to secure a view over a court wrapped in green by lowering the eastern land for a half floor (-1,500mm). I put the feeling of G.Bawa in half floor lower eastern side court and a garden open towards the upper level’s forest. For the interior space of the architecture, each room is arranged by a half floor skipped floors composition. In other words, residents come and go 26 meters long distance over an outdoor road that is penetrated in plan. In fact, the interior of polyhedron, this time composed of wooden three-dimensional trusses, is one-room space under one roof, consisted of spaces continuing kitchen, a skipped floor level study and to a guest room.