Hiroyuki Arima

8008 residence . Fukuoka

hiroyuki arima

Two volumes are set on a slope. They stand apart from each other and are floating in the air. However the two are partially connected by the stair room and the upper volume is rotated about the stair axis.

This is the result of the alignment of the structural conditions, the functional layout and the formal arrangement. This spatial composition requires clients to engage in continuous physical exertion, allowing them to acknowledge their corporeality while providing various views from various angles for the simple life it accommodates. There is also a catwalk beside the stair for their cat. There is no partitioning inside, so there is no fixed pattern of usage. Necessities such as a kitchen and shoe box are located where they need to be, so a simple single space can be used as it is but also the clients can enjoy ‘fuzzy’ enclosures which can be created with temporary partition panels.
Weird replica-type housing complexes are spread below the slope. But there is a traditional field of orange trees above and it has a beautiful hometown flavor to it. Mt.Tachibana to the south west was the historical site of a castle built in the 13th century, but a forest of camphor trees stands there now. The reason why the view from the inside to the outside of the house is designed to lead upward from the horizon, rather than to the housing complexes underneath is because I intended a visual grafting of the orange field, and the sky in the distance, and the skyline and the forest which is continuous from Mt.Tachibana. The openings are designed to frame these scenes.

A 60 year-old cherry tree is growing at the center of the building footprint on this slope. All the openings on the downward sloping side are facing this tree. Daily life unfolds with this connection to the outside. The cherry tree can also be viewed from the rooftop terrace. In addition, the edge of the mountain turns into a deep shade of bottle green at sun-set when the sun is about to disappear, and also the beautiful graduation of the red sky through the rising steam in the early morning sunlight can be enjoyed. In the background is the fresh orange field shining in the morning sun though the quiet mist.
The site is located about 30 minutes drive from the center of Fukuoka city. It is about 1,700 Tsubo (one tsubo is 3.3 square meters) and divided into 8 separate lots. One big tree and 1,000 various saplings will be planted on each lot. And then 8008 trees will grow on the 8 lots to become a new forest. The intention is not to change the form of the slope but to realize different places to live for 8 different users, with trees at the center.
Hiroyuki Arima

Project: 8008
Location: Fukuoka, Japan
Architects: Hiroyuki Arima
Project team: Hozumi Tsunekawa
Structural engineer:KAP-Yasunori Kirino,Satoshi Okamura
Site area:   761.82  m2
Area: 12,565m2
Design(year): 2009-2010
Construction(period): 2010.6-2011.2(9months)
Completion(year): 2011