House in Koamicho / Suppose Design Office

Feb 2010

Uploaded by Nico Saieh — Filed under: Houses ,Selected , Concrete, Japan, Suppose Design Office

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Architects: Suppose design office
Location: Koamicho, Hiroshima, Japan
Site Area: 102.86 sqm
Building Area: 62.80 sqm
Total Floor Area: 121.97 sqm
Project Year: 2008-2009
Photographs: Toshiyuki Yano

When we normally feel “interior” or “exterior”, what are the causes?

And what are the causes of feeling “open” or “narrow”?

first floor plan

This is house designed with much thought to how, from those root causes, we define the conditions of a space. In a long, narrow space, we constructed walls, and by laying out a space in which we experience many rooms, we turn “narrowness” into “openness. “Further, taking rooms and gardens as equivalent, we created spaces that are like the exteriors, calling them “garden rooms”.

By moving from room to another room, we can alternately experience interior and exterior, and they become the place where every rooms are connected to the exterior. Here we have succeeded in realizing a space, which pass traditional definitions to materialized a new relationship between – interior and exterior.

: © Toshiyuki Yano / Nacasa & Partners

: © Toshiyuki Yano / Nacasa & Partners

: © Toshiyuki Yano / Nacasa & Partners

: © Toshiyuki Yano / Nacasa & Partners

: © Toshiyuki Yano / Nacasa & Partners

: © Toshiyuki Yano / Nacasa & Partners

: © Toshiyuki Yano / Nacasa & Partners

: © Toshiyuki Yano / Nacasa & Partners

: © Toshiyuki Yano / Nacasa & Partners

: © Toshiyuki Yano / Nacasa & Partners

: © Toshiyuki Yano / Nacasa & Partners

: © Toshiyuki Yano / Nacasa & Partners

: © Toshiyuki Yano / Nacasa & Partners

: © Toshiyuki Yano / Nacasa & Partners

: © Toshiyuki Yano / Nacasa & Partners

: © Toshiyuki Yano / Nacasa & Partners

: first floor plan

: second floor plan

: section

Cite:
Saieh , Nico . "House in Koamicho / Suppose Design Office" 17 Feb 2010. ArchDaily. Accessed 10 Feb 2012. <http://www.archdaily.com/49930>

Comments (38)
Tweets (14)
Links to this entry (2)

ballistamagazine says:

The progression of spaces is an awkward sequence, but I really like the ambiguity of the interior/exterior rooms. It’s hard to determine which rooms are open-air even in the photographs. Seems like the interior/exterior space concept also leads to some pretty successful light play! Interesting project…

# February 17, 2010 at 23:16

Michael says:

Well, you have to hand it to them. This is a rigorous pursuit of a concept. I think there is a lot to be said for such dogged determination.
I’m not saying the concept is right or wrong, but they have taken the idea and worked it to the nth degree.
It is fastidious and precise.
It’s pretty damn amazing.

# February 17, 2010 at 23:20

gerhard dehls says:

needs a little grafiti

# February 18, 2010 at 00:13

Alex G says:

I love the concept but I wouldn´t live in there, the lack of privacy, not even in the bathroom (you can see the toilet from the kitchen) is not very comfortable, well maybe is for the family of the future. But the sequence of spaces, the “open” spaces between the concrete boxes, the simplicity of the layout, and the minimal decoration, makes this house a lovely and really interesting place.

# February 18, 2010 at 00:28

Mike says:

It looks like Tadao Ando’s Azuma House…

# February 18, 2010 at 02:14

Habito kun says:

it’s more of a copy paste. good point there mike.

# February 18, 2010 at 07:50

Jason says:

Speaking as an American, it’s always interesting to see small, Japanese homes. They have such a different idea of personal, private space… specifically with regard to parent/child bedrooms – both location and in relation to circulation. This is not the first Japanese house I’ve seen where the apparent circulation path basically IS a secondary bedroom – weird… at least from my perspective. I suppose this reflects a different attitude culturally as well as perhaps a consequence of building such small homes. If it works for the client.

The interior/exterior spaces are excellent as well as the placement of openings through the boxes. The light inside the house is amazing. I like the living spaces on the upper floors for the light with the bedrooms below.

# February 18, 2010 at 02:22

luca says:

I don’t get it, where is the real in/out border

# February 18, 2010 at 02:38

starfinder says:

are you luca torelli?

# February 18, 2010 at 06:11

Igor says:

I consider myself as a normal thinking person and I think that representing project is not the architecture. In my opinion the building is the experimental sculpture and it’s in the same category as caves and other shelters. I have seen many but they are deserted long ago.

# February 18, 2010 at 04:22

Andrew Geber says:

wow
certainly would take some getting used to
i guess its a good think hiroshima has a tropical climate

# February 18, 2010 at 04:56

Chris says:

Really loved it at first sight, but I think I have to agree with some of the previous comments, practicallity doesn’t really seem to be on the agenda.

# February 18, 2010 at 05:54

ikachi says:

There have to be more innovations in this project in order not to look like Ando work.

# February 18, 2010 at 06:16

rob.i says:

I’m interested on what a Japanese would say about this project, in particular on these aspects:

1- no interior doors
2- if you want to go to the main bedroom you have to pass through the kids rooms.
3- there is a WC in a corner of the main bedroom
4- a half of the main bed is outside the exterior wall :-)

i really like the way they mixed interior, semi-interior and exterior spaces

# February 18, 2010 at 06:23

Małgorzata says:

Very nice outside, nice but too modest inside.

Some colour and green plants inside, PLEASSSSE!

# February 18, 2010 at 06:43

Marta says:

This is a damn depressing house… I get the inside-outside thing and it really could work, but alltogether the atmosphere is much too cold. It has something of a prison.

# February 18, 2010 at 06:52

Rasha says:

The play of light and dark among the spaces is good. But, I think the rooms are too dark since there’s no direct natural light coming in. Also, it’s too cold. The only color I saw was the pale color of the wood flooring in the living room.

# February 18, 2010 at 07:25

Keunert says:

it’s cold because there’s no insulation.

fantastic project but rahter on the side of art then on the side of mass appeal and usability. only if its inhabited by a single person / or a pair this will work more or less within usual conventions.

# February 18, 2010 at 07:35

RQH says:

This is incredibly bad. The plan makes absolutely no sense. I cannot take projects like this seriously.

# February 18, 2010 at 09:22

anavic says:

you took the words right out of my mouth.

As a concept, fine it could go somewhere, as a house… shameful, I bet anyone healthy would like to live there, when it comes to comfort, we should be just a little bit more… conventional.

# February 18, 2010 at 11:11

eh? says:

I disagree. To whose convention and why?

# February 18, 2010 at 12:42

Mr. Eh?

I find it ridiculous to have to walk through both children’s bedrooms to get to the master. And other than that I’ve seen more thoughtful detailing in the public concrete bathrooms on the boardwalk.

# February 18, 2010 at 21:51

Gatz says:

There are not any doors, noices, smells, windows, cold, warm, food, there is not live, people. This is awfull.

# March 6, 2010 at 09:39

Lutti says:

pour moi c’est une curieuse (et pas très subtile) copie de la Azuma House de Tadao Ando…

# February 18, 2010 at 11:56

Jubair Siddeeque says:

Exceptional!
This is what i can say. they have put it to the next level. You people don’t get. When they need privacy there is Privacy. The circulation then goes up vertically and moves through the common space above and then down to any of the bedroom you want to. And in day time you can pass thorough horizontally as as you draw an architectural cross section. The Circulation and privacy aspects has been well thought off. And the merger of outside and inside has been interpreted in a new but feasible fashion.
Great Design!
Congratulation both to SDO and Archdaily.
Long live SDO
Prayers

# February 18, 2010 at 13:15

there are stairs just in the first outer space, near the entrance. so, if you want to go to the main bedroom, you have to pass through the kids rooms.
ecxept for this problem, i agree with you.

yes, it seems like azuma house but the spaces and the circulation are much more complex and developped

# February 18, 2010 at 14:26

doug says:

I look at it and I just want to move on.

# February 18, 2010 at 13:57

Jostein says:

In my opinion this would be more useful as an office. The lack of privacy wouldn’t hurt so much that way.

# February 18, 2010 at 16:44

g says:

I really like the concept and execution

However..

Most of the firm’s projects makes use of concrete in a way that
makes the houses feel and look like a tomb. Seriously, please start making houses for the living. In this way, it is rather immature…and it’s not even cool and original anymore.

# February 19, 2010 at 01:55

Adrem says:

Very inspiring plan (i agree with Subair: long live SDO!), but the final result is in some way disappointing: not their best work so far.

# February 19, 2010 at 04:06

maxfase says:

I would never live there. this is so sad, so cold, so meaningless. some architects want it “brutal”: they should learn from Le Corbu’s convent of la tourette, where the nude concrete is used in order to “compose” spaces, and let the colours and the light being the main actors!

# February 19, 2010 at 04:18

have you ever been to la tourette?
i don’t know, i think your comparison is improper since that is a monastery. after this, i think la tourette is one of the sadest building i’ve ever seen. the only thing that saves it is the wonderful countryside that surrounds it.

# February 19, 2010 at 04:38

rdeamer says: