STUDIO VELOCITY

A house for a female hairdresser and two cats, located between a mountain and a brook that flows at the foot of the mountain. The client requested that she wants as many rooms as possible, even if they were small. For example, the client’s office is a hair-cutting shop, and next to it is a dining hall where she can take work breaks on weekdays and eat with friends on holidays, as well as a living room, bedroom, guest room, musical instrument room and so on. The site was on a hill, and except for the neighboring house on the north side, it was surrounded by rivers and small mountains below, leaving a natural environment. Also, the view to the southwest direction was particularly good so I wanted to make the most of this site environment. In order to have as many rooms as possible with good views, I conceived a slender rectangle with as many faces as possible in that direction. However, by doing so, the surfaces on both sides inevitably faced northwest or southeast instead of southwest. Especially, there is a neighboring house on the northwest side, and I don’t feel the need to turn there. Therefore, we decided to make a house with only two sides. To create a space with two elevations was like an image of inflating two walls, making them curved. By doing so, the surface area of the wall that faces southwest is increased compared to when it was rectangular so that as many faces as possible can experience the view in the southwest direction. The bulging of the two walls was aimed at a non-artificial erection away from the planner’s hands, as if the two walls were naturally formed when stresses were applied to them. The volume is completed by air expansion of the gap between the two overlapping surfaces. Also, I think that it will be a volume that creates air with instability in shape and movement of inside that is likely to deflate and return to its original state. It’s neither like blending in nor adapting to the surroundings. We aimed to create an architecture that is positively influenced by changing the shape while taking advantage of the environment of the site.

source: studio velocity