四街道の住宅 / House in Yotsukaido

The client of this project is a family of three, a couple, and their mother. They decided to renovate the house as they expect to spend more time at home from next year.

The plan is concentrated to use the space as a whole, which was too large for three people, as all their children had already left home. First of all, we broke the wall on the second floor to connect it to the existing void. And we partially lowered the ceiling of the living room at the same time, we created a small rise to emphasize this cozy space. We also shortened the flow line to the staircase to make it easier to go upstairs and reduce the psychological distance.

We try to gather “architectural things” that are scattered to glue the separated spaces together―curtains, long sofas, systemized wooden pillars, beams, handrails, space colored in gray, ceiling line that draws curve―although each of their existence is insignificant by themselves, however, they connect the spaces appropriately by organizing with each other and making sort of combination.

Even the curtains, which are uniformly colored in similar shades, are sewn and made of different materials to change their presence from place to place. The light from the windows and rooms is diffused in every direction with its colored shade by the presence of these fabrics. Walls and ceilings are based on white to emphasize this effect, increasing the sensitivity of the change of weather and time.

We were able to carry out this renovation work while preserving the innards of the existing house and achieving maximum effect with minimum manipulation.

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