Naya Architects

360° house . Asaoku

Naya Architects . photos：© makoto yoshida

Normally, there is a site first, and design will follow the site condition, but I had drawing the sketch some years ago, then I had started looking for the site that this building can be realized. The approach that taken was totally different from the usual.

To realize the personal residence, because I wanted to realize my own space, I have started the design without pursuing my own theory of what the residence should be nor the beautiful shape that I believe, since I have been thinking that it is the way of thinking to realize what one would want to truly realize. As a result, there are many of unnamed places/zones that are inside or outside, narrow or spacious, closed or opened, these elements are connected together without having any hierarchy just like a park, and there are total of 6 kind of levels created in the building.
By setting the floor level at GL-900mm, ceiling height of 3,100mm is achieved at 1F to providing openness and creating moderately closed space by securing certain level of privacy. Since 1F is located at semi-underground level, thanks to the stable geothermal heat, rooms at 1F are kept in cool during summer, and warm during winter. Lightening the weight of the site itself by digging the ground is beneficial in terms of structure.

Moreover, this building has eave that surrounds the entire building, and this is because I have tried to secure the comfort like traditional Japanese housing without depending upon the mechanical equipment. Depth of the eave above the deck at south is 2,100mm, and this has been carefully planned to protect the area from strong sunlight and rainfalls of summer. Ceiling height of this area is lowered to 2,100mm, and this creates the atmosphere of an independent room, rather than the extension of the room.
Furthermore, the rooftop is covered by the grass that aims to achieve the effect of heat isolation, but also to create other place for people to stay. This space has not been planned to create the space for play but to create the necessary space in terms of daily living in reality. As the spaces have been composed based on the thoughts of not having clear boundary of interior and exterior, this grass roof is melting into the neighboring site that is filled with greens as if the boundary has been vanished.
As a result of composing the space based on the thoughts on necessary spaces, there are many levels in plane、but I have never been tried to fit these spaces into clean rectangular. The same thing can be also said to the design of elevation and section. 1F and 2F are seemed to the separate buildings at the roof as a boundary, and there are walls that are not aligned.
Like the animals just creating their nest, this housing based on the ideas of not Japanese nor European and not new nor old, neutral, as less editing as possible. I have designed without having particular design since I thought this way of thinking is very ordinary and truth.

With the minimum desire and design, I wanted to make the building that is not have particular directions: 360°
When I see the sketches again after a while, I realized that the building has completed almost like it was shown in the first sketch.

・360° located in Asaoku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa
・Completed in 2013.10.04
・photos：©makoto yoshida
・「360°」