M House / Kei’ichi Irie + Power Unit Studio

Architects: Kei’ichi Irie + Power Unit Studio
Location: Karuizawa, Japan
Project area: 391 sqm
Project year: 2007
Photographs: hiroyuki HIRAI

The site is facing with a busy street with tourist’s cars and buses specially in the summer time, but the garden-side is a quiet and lovely forest. There are 3 daughter’s families and the parents, living independently in the M house, sharing the same view of trees and animals.

The curved shape of this house is for to embraces the forest of nature, but also, it allows each family to feel each other’s presence although they may not see directly. To keep the quietness and privacy for the client’s family, the street-side facade is a thick RC structure with small windows, while the garden-side toward the forest is composed with wide grass windows, to enjoy the life in a forest.