This building consists of three independent residential units. It is designed carefully considering the privacy as well as the ecological aspect while benefitting the respective client economically.
This house is located in a residential area between Osaka and Kobe. The plot is situated approximately 3 meters below the street level. Therefore, the entrances to all units are located on the first floor. Each unit is approximately 80-90m2 and they are combined sterically in the way that one cannot recognize the boundaries among them from outside.
Two family units occupy two floors (ground floor and first floor) while each unit is provided with private yards. The penthouse unit enjoys a private roof deck instead. The numbers of the internal walls are kept to the minimum hence flexibility of the internal layout is increased. The southeast façade is fully glazed and enjoys the clear view of the city. Public areas of each residence are also located on the southeast side in order to maximize the benefit. In contrast, northwest façade is enclosed by the steel sheet that wraps three units altogether to maintain the privacy of each unit. The shape of this steel shelter is determined according to the analysis made with shadow plot, in order to avoid casting shadow on the adjacent land on the north side.
This building was planned before the great Hanshin earthquake and was in the middle of construction when it happened. Fortunately, there was no damage caused to the building structure.
Looking down from this house, the city seems to have recovered greatly over the past years, sadly the buildings built after the earthquake was mostly prefabricated and uncharacteristic. I’m just overwhelmed by the speed that they built. There are still fragments of small plots that have no beneficial use. To make matters worse, there seems to be no improvement of living environments. I hope that the idea of this small co-housing project can become one of the solutions to this problem.
(Award of excellence at Healthy Homes Contest)
