Concrete casket: this family house maximizes a tight urban site to create a dramatic internal realm.When designing houses for their own use, architects are usually more able to succumb suc·cumb intr.v. suc·cumbed, suc·cumb·ing, suc·cumbs 1. To submit to an overpowering force or yield to an overwhelming desire; give up or give in. See Synonyms at yield. 2. To die. to the pleasures and perils of self-expression with sometimes intriguing, sometimes dismaying results. This new house in Kobe falls into the former category. Building any sort of dwelling in Japan's overcrowded o·ver·crowd v. o·ver·crowd·ed, o·ver·crowd·ing, o·ver·crowds v.tr. To cause to be excessively crowded: a system of consolidation that only overcrowded the classrooms. cities is a challenge, met here with no little ingenuity by Hiroaki Ohtani, who has designed and built a house for himself and his family in the heart of Kobe. Ohtani found a characteristically tight site, only 33sqm in footprint and barely 3m wide, hemmed in between two existing houses. The lack of space and limited access precluded the use of elaborate construction equipment, so the programme assumed an even more formidable dimension. Ohtani's response was to create an exquisitely ascetic concrete and timber casket that slots precisely into the cramped space. Within this domestic receptacle are spaces for study, sleeping, washing, living and dining stacked up with the precision of a Chinese puzzle Chinese puzzle n. 1. A very intricate puzzle. 2. Something very difficult or complex. Chinese puzzle Noun a complicated puzzle or problem Noun 1. and linked by disarmingly vertiginous ver·tig·i·nous adj. 1. Affected by vertigo; dizzy. 2. Tending to produce vertigo. vertiginous adjective Related to vertigo, dizzy flights of stairs seemingly hijacked from the illusionistic imagination of M. C. Escher Maurits Cornelis Escher (June 17 1898 – March 27 1972), usually referred to as M. C. Escher, was a Dutch graphic artist. He is known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs and mezzotints. . To maximize every scrap of space, the house is set back slightly from the street, creating a tiny enclosed entrance patio planted with a single tree, signifying the boundary of a private domain. Horizontal concrete slats wrap around the patio and frame a huge glazed glaze n. 1. A thin smooth shiny coating. 2. A thin glassy coating of ice. 3. a. A coating of colored, opaque, or transparent material applied to ceramics before firing. b. opening cut into the street frontage. The slatted fence and tree conspired to screen the interior of the house from the attentions of the street. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The sleeping floor is raised slightly above street level with a dining cum study room and bathroom sunk slightly below it. The topmost floor contains an integrated living and kitchen space, its soaring volume illuminated by the glazed street facade and an opening cut into the roof above the staircase that filters shafts of light into the long deep plan. A smaller (but steeper) secondary staircase leads up from the living area to a roof terrace. Because site conditions limited mechanical construction, Ohtani used pre-stressed concrete strips laid horizontally by hand to form the enclosing walls. The technique recalls log cabin log cabin or log house, style of home typical of the American pioneer on the Western frontier of the United States in the great westward expansion after 1765. It was constructed with few tools, usually an axe or an adz and an auger. building (walls are constructed with no vertical members) and traditional Japanese structures which employ horizontal strips of timber. Stair treads, shelves and other fixtures and fittings are simply slotted in between the precast pre·cast adj. Relating to or being a structural member, especially of concrete, that has been cast into form before being transported to its site of installation. members. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Within this slatted concrete box, everything is pared down to its utter minimum. Stairs, for instance, are simply a series of timber treads without the pesky encumbrance A burden, obstruction, or impediment on property that lessens its value or makes it less marketable. An encumbrance (also spelled incumbrance) is any right or interest that exists in someone other than the owner of an estate and that restricts or impairs the transfer of the estate or of risers, balustrades or handrails. This certainly contrives to open up the interior and encourage spatial interpenetration In`ter`pen`e`tra´tion n. 1. The act or process of penetrating between or within other substances; mutual penetration; also, the result of a process of interpenetration. Noun 1. , but vertical circulation is not for the faint-hearted (Ohtani and his wife have a six year old daughter who must be especially fearless). Warm timber floors and furniture set off the slightly austere concrete walls, so the entire house has a powerful elemental quality derived from a limited palette of materials animated by the play of light. Ohtani consciously rejects the clutter of the world; as he puts it 'Lack of things can create a rich lifestyle', and his admirable if somewhat rigorous personal proscriptions include not owning a car, television, microwave, curtain, fax and 'a large refrigerator'. His ingenious little house, which in its use of space and materials has lessons for building on tight urban sites everywhere, is an eloquent manifestation of this philosophy. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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