Hidekazu Kishi Architects . + archdaily
The owner lived next to their parents’ family home. There were some extended carports and eaves in the garden, and they lived by going back and forth while using the outside space. The front road was narrow and there was little traffic, so the exterior space, including the vacant lot opposite, was used as a garden for two families. Then, the owner built a new house in the vacant lot, and their grandmother lived in the house their older residence. The neighboring house on the south side was a one-story house and the ground was lowered by 1 m, so we placed the house as close to the south as possible and left as much of the open area and brightness of the vacant lot.
From there, eaves and terraces were extended from the house to the north, depending on the location, following the way existing houses lived by adding various structures in a semi-DIY manner. There are small eaves that welcome people to the entrance, large eaves for BBQ and rice cake making, balconies for growing herbs, long eaves that double as a corridor to the grandmother’s house, and a base for basketball.
The exterior space, including the road, became a place-like courtyard surrounded by three houses (owner’s house, parent’s house, grandmother’s house) and their eaves. Living extends outside the house, and by gaining a new base on the other side, various relationships are created between the existing houses and the new house.
Furthermore, as the owner uses the new house, the lives of the three families are intricately networked and merged through the ‘courtyard’. Neighbors are also very close to this family and often socialize outside. We would like to see this architecture and the courtyard created by it as the center of lively relationships where relatives and families gather on weekends.
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