House N / Sou Fujimoto

Sep 2011

Uploaded by Nico Saieh — Filed under: Houses ,Selected , Concrete, Garden, Japan, Patio, Sou Fujimoto

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Architects: Sou Fujimoto Architects
Location: Oita, Japan
Project Team: Yumiko Nogiri
Structural Consultant: Jun Sato Structural Engineers
Design Year: 2006-2007
Construction Year: 2007-2008
Site Area: 236,57 sqm
Constructed Area: 150,57 sqm
Photographer: Iwan Baan

A home for two plus a dog. The house itself is comprised of three shells of progressive size nested inside one another. The outermost shell covers the entire premises, creating a covered, semi-indoor garden. Second shell encloses a limited space inside the covered outdoor space. Third shell creates a smaller interior space. Residents build their life inside this gradation of domain.

I have always had doubts about streets and houses being separated by a single wall, and wondered that a gradation of rich domain accompanied by various senses of distance between streets and houses might be a possibility, such as: a place inside the house that is fairly near the street; a place that is a bit far from the street, and a place far off the street, in secure privacy.

That is why life in this house resembles to living among the clouds. A distinct boundary is nowhere to be found, except for a gradual change in the domain. One might say that an ideal architecture is an outdoor space that feels like the indoors and an indoor space that feels like the outdoors. In a nested structure, the inside is invariably the outside, and vice versa. My intention was to make an architecture that is not about space nor about form, but simply about expressing the riches of what are `between` houses and streets.

Three nested shells eventually mean infinite nesting because the whole world is made up of infinite nesting. And here are only three of them that are given barely visible shape. I imagined that the city and the house are no different from one another in the essence, but are just different approaches to a continuum of a single subject, or different expressions of the same thing- an undulation of a primordial space where humans dwell. This is a presentation of an ultimate house in which everything from the origins of the world to a specific house is conceived together under a single method.

: diagram

: section

: elevation

: ground plan

: site plan

Cite:
Saieh , Nico . "House N / Sou Fujimoto" 14 Sep 2011. ArchDaily. Accessed 04 Feb 2012. <http://www.archdaily.com/7484>

Comments (46)
Tweets (59)
Links to this entry (63)

M says:

wow!!!!!!!!!!!
this guys are just amazing!!!!!!!!!!!

# October 15, 2008 at 03:22

-1

Peter says:

I think this is a very very good and inspiring idea. I’m not entirely convinced by the color choice (it is very white), but I’m sold on the inside/outside idea.

# October 15, 2008 at 05:33

Valerie says:

I think the white was imperative as it would detract from the emphasis on the spaces by adding colour into the mix – it would just be too much and not as understated

# November 2, 2011 at 12:53

Musser says:

wonderful.

# October 15, 2008 at 08:09

F says:

this looks like the arch-daily logo … ;)

# October 15, 2008 at 12:18

Grzegorz Woronowicz says:

I’m delighted by this genius idea. It’s so simple and seems to really work out. I’m just curious how they managed to convince the local authorities to get a building permission for this form in that area ;)
Grzegorz Woronowicz

# October 15, 2008 at 17:02

bavava says:

eiiiiiiiiii………….so nice its . but for me if it s my home i prefert grey colour .not so easy for dirty .

# October 15, 2008 at 22:42

Natalie says:

agree,simple and creative.It seems this idea has many possibilities to futher design.

# October 16, 2008 at 03:04

br says:

amazing house!
but i have a question that from the photos it seems there are no glass for the window, how the designer solve the safty problem? is it really someone live inside?

# October 16, 2008 at 03:56

mvb says:

In Japan nobody is worried about robberies or criminality. You can forget your laptop/iphone… in a public place, that you would still find it in the same place. A kind of society where good architecture may be possible.

# September 15, 2011 at 00:26

silivan says:

I am an architecture student, and like these designs very much

# October 17, 2008 at 05:19

i think that white is most fit for the house can be puted in evidence easily

# October 17, 2008 at 05:22

Matías says:

Hace unos meses participe de una conferencia de este arquitecto y fue súper inspiradora.

Tiene una obra muy interesante

# October 17, 2008 at 07:56

ann says:

idea-space within space is fine..but external look..similar with sejima SNA

# October 19, 2008 at 22:19

Ruben says:

That’s a house ..!
Very nice ..!

# October 22, 2008 at 16:17

didot says:

amazing! such a great inovation! haha.. but… how about rain? thru from the holes..

# November 12, 2008 at 11:34

Larry says:

Inspiring. I want to pour cheetos and PBR on the walls and lick them. Maybe destroy the minimalism through an artistic endeavor.

# November 28, 2008 at 12:41

zanzi says:

this is super duper fantastic.simple,clear.great light.

# November 28, 2008 at 12:50

najme says:

thats fantastic

# December 2, 2008 at 04:23

w says:

Very private – id run around naked there

# December 2, 2008 at 11:51

Felicity Brouwers says:

This reminds me of the anti dwelling box by kiko mozuna. nice!

# December 5, 2008 at 08:03

Contemporary Art says:

I think about this house almost every day, and have since I first saw it. I know every image by heart I think. There is something magic in these images, if not the house itself. To have such a clear domestic life, the owners must feel empowered to do anything. It seems like if I had such a home, I could take on the world knowing I’d have it to come home to. Truly beautiful.
–
http://www.contemporaryartdaily.com

# December 17, 2008 at 01:30

Bimbamboum. says:

Very nice on photos. Not so sure the house is that great once the sun and wide angle are gone.
That’s an ideal house, not one to live in.

# December 23, 2008 at 06:29

guest says:

COOL!!! i love his designs… so creative..

# February 16, 2009 at 12:08

Alexandre says:

uau!

# February 27, 2009 at 19:05

Hieu says:

it´s great. I´m looking for something like this: the relation between exterior and interior space. We always design the natural outside of the house, but why can´t we do it like that: creating the natural inside the house and the owner can do anything they want.

Gracias por esta forma de imaginacion.

# March 3, 2009 at 01:56

Gzentoperg says:

Good for paintball, but why it’s called “house”?

# March 6, 2009 at 18:36

Tomas says:

This is realy nice building. I like white color which is very modernistic and spaces are open. this is white box but have it’s history;)

# March 18, 2009 at 12:49

janusa says:

Hvala za House N. Zgradila jo bom z možem v Trbovljah, Slovenia, Evropa.
Thank you for House N. I will build it with my husband in Trbovlje, Slovenia, Europe.

# July 2, 2009 at 17:07

mathias says:

very sejima + nishizawa, but very nice

# July 8, 2009 at 16:54

valentina says:

half indoor or half outdoor spaces,it depends on the point of view, on the gradient of natural light,a theme very well explained by this elegant house.i would also like to live in!

# October 24, 2009 at 14:22

wenjun says:

well, it’s very cool… maybe too cool to be a ‘home’
for me, i feel dying in that kind of cleanness and simplicity…

# December 2, 2009 at 08:25

ltd says:

@F: It does look like the AD logo!
@Contemporary Art: I absolutely agree. It’s buildings like this that make architecture so invigorating. And you’re right, there is something magical about the building. It’s what Hieu said: the blending of the exterior and interior space: seamless.

# September 13, 2010 at 17:34

nogz says:

Quite nice, I only hope that the originality and novelty of the effects Mr. Fujimoto is generating are not lost in a discussion berating the Japanese for employing a certain shared language or in a comparison with SANAA that uses terms like “first” or “better”. Architecture is a lingual art and Mr. Fujimoto certainly speaks in interesting phrases.

# September 14, 2010 at 10:58

mahnaz says:

i love nature and i wish like this home ,integrated with nature how much possible…
thank you sou fujimoto for your vision…..

# April 13, 2011 at 14:07

edou777 says:

Japanese are the best nowadays

# August 24, 2011 at 16:17

runli guo says:

it’s a interesting and comfortble house it’s full of sunlight and green feeling

# September 5, 2011 at 21:50

D Balcom says:

I would really like to see the MEP Schematics for this house. I see where the people work and relax, and I like it, but I’m having an issue seeing how they actually live in the home.

# September 14, 2011 at 14:49

emre says:

this house has an apparent privacy problem. it is not like an house but a lounge of somewhere..

# September 15, 2011 at 01:47

wely sinaga says:

new paradigm.. bravo

# September 15, 2011 at 04:51

yudo dwarf says:

# September 15, 2011 at 05:09

h says:

i like the basic concept, and it looks great in photographs, but the house doesnt seem to deal with the issues of housing typology such as soundproofing (and smell. from the kitchen) between the rooms, the bedroom area looks temporary at best.

Is it really just for 1 couple/single with no children who only eat salads and other foods which do not need to be cooked?
Seems more suitable for an art gallery.

# September 15, 2011 at 09:49

bong says:

buildings in a building! wow, very unique idea!!

# September 15, 2011 at 22:37

Seph says:

Great work!But as a lazy man,I will not live in this house…..must take a long time to clean it every week…

# November 29, 2011 at 08:32

Shadi Ossaili says:

very nice

# December 19, 2011 at 05:33

Sam says:

I really enjoy this project, especially Mr Fujimoto’s perception of spaces – physically, metaphorically and theoretically.

# January 14, 2012 at 17:08

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Sou Fujimoto's House N on ArchDaily: Life in this house resembles living among the clouds http://bit.ly/2lHKJ

11:38 PM Sep 5th

jose luis martinez

http://www.archdaily.com/7484/house-n-sou-fujimoto/

3:59 PM Sep 8th

YILUN ZHANG

Reading: "House N / Sou Fujimoto | ArchDaily"( http://twitthis.com/abpbxj )

10:22 PM Oct 4th

Salwat/ I of K.I.P.

Don't know how they live there but it's well thinked http://www.archdaily.com/7484/house-n-sou-fujimoto/

8:12 PM Oct 6th