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Architects: MARU。architecture
- Area: 92 m²
- Year: 2017
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Photographs:Kai Nakamura
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Manufacturers: Gotoh Lighting Furniture, Sangetsu
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Lead Architects: Yohei Takano, Sachiko Morita
Text description provided by the architects. This is a house built for an elderly married couple in the outskirts of the city. Besides providing living functions to the couple, the house also has an atelier space for their son who lives in the same city. In recent years, Japan is experiencing an aging society, where most of the elderly citizens are still active as an "Active senior" . It is essential for us to consider and explore a new possible way to help them enjoy their second life after retiring.
In the project, three private rooms were individually designed for father, mother, and son to ensure their privacy. According to behaviors of each member of the family in their daily lives, these three rooms are composed of Western-style, Japanese style, and Earthen floor, and they were placed apart at the site in order to create courtyard spaces between them.
We placed a curved roof between each private room to form a space called "AI-NO-MA" , which means "In-between Space" . Since "AI-NO-MA" is connected with the private rooms, it functions as a buffer to allow each to maintain relationships while keeping distances.
"AI-NO-MA" is not only a living area for the family to communicate but also like a shared veranda where they can feel each other even when they are in their own spaces.
