House in Kujyukuri / Office of Kimihiko Okada

© Toshiyuki Yano

Architect: Kimihiko Okada / Office of Kimihiko Okada
Location: Kujyukuri, Chiba,
Structural Engineer: Masaya Kamino (Force Dimension)
Site Area: 261.93 sqm
Constructed Area: 64.74 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Toshiyuki Yano

A residence for an individual who retired from work to spend rest of his life enjoying his hobby. The house was requested to be built simple and with low construction fee, therefore, I decided to minimize the operations and materials to achieve the maximum effect. It is built on the peaceful village of the gently-sloping ground with a few residences and . The wall of the house starts as a site boundary. It draws a continuous spiral and ends as the partition of a central single room, gradually changing its height.

floor plan
© Toshiyuki Yano

The spaces with different functions such as a field, a parking lot and a work place, the living room, and the bedroom are placed in spiral continuously and yet gently divided by the wall. The different experience created by the distance of each rooms and the wall enclosed by many-fold, give depth to the space and produce the rank of privacy. Though it is a small residence of about 65 square meters of total floor area, it is aimed to create an image of endlessly continuing space and depth, and also, to give the sense of security and gentle changes in environment, by being enclosed by several folds.

Cite: "House in Kujyukuri / Office of Kimihiko Okada" 31 Jan 2010. ArchDaily. Accessed 22 May 2013. <http://www.archdaily.com/47827>

10 comments

  1. Thumb up Thumb down 0

    I’ve tried this before in sketch, a wall that wraps around an eventual volume…and I dunno, it just is never really that great. It never really works, no one would ever want to walk around that to get in their house, evidence of that is the door that let’s you take a shortcut through the wall. Maybe for a museum, but for a house it just seems silly… Not to mention the interior is pretty hideous!

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  2. Thumb up Thumb down 0

    I don’t have any issue with the interiors of this space, but the exterior spaces and how the building is sited are particularly problematic for me. There are precedents for linear meeting spaces, but very rarely at this scale can you find a successful exterior space in this arrangement. While the parti is romantic in theory, it is a classic example of how those gestures can fall short in application. I personally think the interiors are nice; all too often, residences (and offices, whatever this classifies as) get evaluated by their “hominess”, which is an entirely subjective matter.

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  3. Thumb up Thumb down 0

    its a great design for maximizing great exterior views, specially for a low budget couples, could be a part time office o a humble residence, it may be a fusion from both, well, that’s my critic

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    • Thumb up Thumb down 0

      The house is like half finished painter canvas. I am looking for the final layer (especially in the kitchen, sleeping room and exterior spaces).

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  6. Thumb up Thumb down 0

    It’s a house, where does it says is an office?, the “work” part they’re refering to is the hobby of the owner (I wonder what that is, since it’s out in the open)

    Anyhow, the spiral idea is pretty interesting, the sequence of spaces; parking/work?, living, dining, kitchen, bath and bedroom seems to be right, formally speaking (the exterior shots) looks ok, but the end result is pretty depressing.

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