STUDIO VELOCITY

This is a house for a married couple and their child. Its site is located in a residential area facing the school route that school children and wives of the neighborhood pass. This area has gentle hills. Many sites have developed the flat ground by heaping up soil, therefore there are no connections between the natural topography of the road and the flattened sites. Most of the nearby houses are surrounded by walls and have a parking lot at the roadside along the site. The flat site, the wall, and parking lot have made the distance more than necessary between the living space and the town. I connected the landscape and the road. I built six roofs in HP shells which lie one on top of another to the landscape. I designed each of the roofs so that the eaves become higher nearing the center of the site, and lower approaching the outside. In the center, a bright open living space is created, and the outside addresses the surrounding town at a human scale. The line which connects the lowest to the highest point of each roof creates a diagonal line. The line is a gentle valley, therefore the flow of rainwater is controlled. I made gaps between the roofs which lie one on top of another by lifting up each corner beside the highest and lowest points on the roof. The gaps allow the passing of wind and light, connecting the house to the elements. The underside of the roof responds to the gently undulating typography of the town. As life passes between the space under the eaves, a continuity is created between inside and outside. The gardens are arranged alternately and gently slopes down to each adjacent street combines to make the space like a small park, creating accessibility and encouraging relationships between the house and its passing neighbors. Both school children and wives of the neighborhood expressed an interest in the house and often spoke to the residents during construction. A man of the neighborhood visited on its completion, and I heard he liked the tree in this garden, so he planted one of his own. When I was taking pictures for some magazines, I also noticed that the opposite houses were all painted white. I think this site connecting the street with the slope and the surrounding site will re-establish relationships with the neighborhood.

source: studio velocity