Yuji Nakae . Ohno Japan . komorebi design . photos: © Hiroyasu Sakaguchi . + leibal
Situated off the highway along the seaside, the site is a right triangle shaped land between two roads at Y-shaped intersection. Starting from the point of the right angle, going up along the short side, and ending at the end of the longest side, there is 3.5 meter level difference overall. The gap between the surrounding road and the ground level of the site was adjusted by retaining walls. The small triangular dent looked like a useless empty lot, or an abandoned yard of the neighboring house.
The short side of the triangle faces the mouth of the river cascading down the mountain. From there you get the view of the Bay of Sagami. Due to level difference along the roads, you get open views, and you can keep good distance from the neighbors. We expected that the upper floor would provide a comfortable open space for a weekend house.
The weekend house consists of three floor levels.
The basement is composed of reinforced concrete walls, serving as foundation of the house. They are built as close as possible to the retaining walls so that they blend into the background. They are built at the same level as the adjoining roads, and two entries from different levels are provided.
This concrete structure, which is inserted into the triangular dent, has created a new landscape. Or maybe one can say that it reconstructed the original mountain landscape.
Two-storey wood structure is built above the concrete foundation. The lower level has a bedroom and bathroom enclosed by walls. It is standard post and beam construction. The upper level is allocated for living room. The structure is rigid wood frame construction, with engineered wood columns located at four corners. It is an entirely open space, with panoramic views in all directions.
This house stands strongly at the top of the landscape, like a lighthouse at the tip of the coast. At the same time it fits naturally into the triangular-shaped sunken site.
location
Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan
principal use
weekend house
completion date
December 2009
