Cliff hanger: with land at a premium price, creative architects and daring clients need to lead the way. Shuhei Endo edges ahead in Kobe.

Maybe this site was just too narrow. Maybe the metallic radius simply didn't fit? Or maybe, just maybe, Shuhei Endo is becoming straighter with maturity, weary of his youthful, energetic, coiled-up, highly-sprung architecture? Whatever the reason, Rooftecture S is delightful, and audacious. On a site that even the quietly daring Japanese may have considered too troublesome--a forgotten embankment plot, hairpinned to the side of a coastal road--a 65sqm home now sits.

The site, tapering in width from 4 metres to a blunt 1.5m point, is 20m long and sits in front of a retaining wall that rises from 5 to 8m along its length into this Endo has carefully placed a small metallic wedge; a shard-like form that through slanted tricks of perspective appears for more precarious than it actually is. Although described as a house that clings to a hill, no lateral forces could in fact be applied to the existing stone retaining wall; instead, five principal columns take the load to a level ground plane, leaving a clear canyon between house and wall. As metal is set against stone, visitors descend onto a cantilevered entrance terrace that bridges the gap, and from here they can enter the house on its uppermost level.

Formally, the building's dominant feature, the roof, is a piece of trademark Endo, corrugated, in steel, naturally. Here, however, we meet a sharper more mature Endo, no longer defined by youthful soft curves. As the rectangular roof plane folds over the triangular plan, it falls almost to the vertical and aligns in true elevation with the inclination of the road behind. The north facade this creates is then punctuated to balance the exploitation of views with the provision of shelter. Here, instead of being drawn to address the expansive coastal views, the upper level living rooms turn to address the canyon and the site's dominant retaining wall through full-height glazing, that in turn lets onto a sheltered terrace. Full-height seaward glazing is saved for the lower ground level, beneath the folded roof plane, which contains the Doma--a traditional Japanese room that originates from the sheltered entry-way cum household workspaces, historically accompanied by compacted earthen floors. Here, the contemporary glazed Doma leads out to a covered courtyard.

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From his earlier Cyclestation M, Transtation O, and Springtecture H explorations (ARs August 1997, December 2000), where spaces crawled up from the ground with roof, wall and floor formed as a single continuous whole, this building continues to display Endo's playful ingenuity, despite being arguably more conventional. Having tackled the complicated statutory negotiations, intricate planning, and technical difficulties that no doubt needed detailed resolution, however, one decision remains incongruous; when considering its exposed coastal location, why use metal? (Aside, that is, from the desire to remain consistent to his trademark Style--the S word that Japanese architects seem much more comfortable to adopt than their European counterparts.) While convincingly appropriate when used by linking lengths together to create curved forms that contain continuous open spaces, in this application you have to wonder, why?

The detailing of the sheet metal certainly fails to communicate the lightness of touch that Endo's work has held previously. When interrogating the final details, a purist's eye finds little rest tracing how each and every articulated panel, surface and window aperture is framed-out by not-so-trim trim detailing. More refinement in detail, perhaps, could have brought the finesse required to match the building's potentially delicate disposition. This aside, however, the execution is ingenious and unique, and perhaps more than we have seen before, Endo has read the site and responded accordingly. The granite and concrete retaining wall, built between 30 and 40 years ago for Endo was the context; a recent history, but nevertheless a history to respond to; a spirited site, with character and identity, naturally manmade, topographically unique and engineered using local stone. The clients are unsurprisingly delighted, and the shelter provided on what was potentially a highly exposed site, reflects their desire to maintain a stable intimate and private lifestyle. Furthermore, with the cost of the site disproportionately low at approximately 20 per cent of overall costs, Rooftecture S is an exemplary model for the colonisation of valuable yet apparently unusable sites, utilising what is given to maximum effect.

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