House & Café HessOrganica is a small complex with three stories, featured by wooden external walls. Standing on a vantage point of the hill of Okazaki city, the building has a summer living room on garden level, an organic café on the next floor, and a winter living room on the top floor. This composition is an ingenious solution to exist a residence and an organic café together in one small building.
When we start designing this building, using wooden external wall was strongly requested. Because the client wife wanted to start an organic café by herself, so natural image was needed, and the client hasband was an expert of woody materials.
Making the lowest floor at garden level, which is not rare for terrace houses in England, but in Japan they hardly design garden level because of the humid climate. This building is an exception because it was built on a retaining wall of the hill whose height is as same as 2-story houses, and rain can be drained to the ground under the hill.
Using wood was their common interest, but because of the regulation of the area, wooden materials for external walls of 3 stories building above the ground is prohibited, while having parking spaces in the site for 3 cars which was required as a suburban café, the building area had to be limited and having three stories or more were inevitable. We could use fireproofing woods, but they cost much more than usual ones. The last thing we did was sinking the whole building half floor height, to make the access of the café easier for customers. By defined as a building with one story underground and two stories above the ground, the regulation about the material of external walls didn’t reach for this buiding.
Another problem was the position of the café. For 3 stories building, usually the first floor is used for eating and drinking establishment because the access of the customers is easier. But on this building, storefront café didn’t look appropriate because the view of the first floor was not so great instead of the hilltop location, customers couldn’t enjoy the view. In addition, the wife would stay working in the café’s kitchen most of her time on weekdays, so scenic upper floors would be empty and not used while the husband is gone for his work. So we proposed to move the café to the middle of 3 stories. This arrangement improved the view of the café, and at the same time, the composition was clarified, that the central part of the building was the kitchen of the café, and dwelling parts were surrounding the center. The husband can stay sometimes at café, sometimes at dwelling parts, selecting the distance from the center of this house, as he likes.
As a café, natural feeling was produced by wood external walls, and the composition made it the place with good views while the access was still easy. As a house, two livingrooms were separated into two levels, the character of two spaces are clarified, one is a shady cool area for summer, one is cozy area for winter, while both of them are adjoining to the café, which is the central part of the building.
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