I-House by Takuro Yamamoto Architects

Article source: Takuro Yamamoto Architects

White Cave House is a white massive house characterized by a series of open-air voids bending and engraving the lump of the building. The purpose of these void spaces is to introduce sunlight into the house, protecting privacy and controlling scenes not in an exclusive way. And these spaces are practically used as entrance porch, garage, courtyard and terrace, so some spaces have to be seen from inside of the house as scenes.

I-House

• Architects: Takuro Yamamoto Architects
• Project: I-House

I-House

One reason for this composition is that minimal and quiet feeling like another world was required for the courtyard and the terrace. Using walls is the simple way to control scenes and privacy, but complete walls often make spaces too dark and exclusive. In this house, by connecting one void to the next, walls are always opened to the next spaces, and it is easier to introduce sunray into open-air spaces. This arrangement makes the courtyard and the terrace look not only simple and quiet, but also brighter than usual courtyard house.

I-House

The second reason is the number of spaces required by the client. 3 bedrooms and 1 Japanese room are required in addition to a living room with dining kitchen, and one roofed garage for two cars, an entrance porch, a courtyard and a terrace. But total floor space is not enough because of the budget limitation, so each space has to be smaller than usual. Especially garage was the problem, because it takes considerable part of the floor space though it is not a place for people. So we stopped making the garage independent closed space, but used it as a connecting space between the entrance porch and the courtyard, not to make those two spaces look closed dead ends. Off course, this also works for saving garage’s floor space.

Drawing

The last reason of the bending composition, is not to see through whole voids. Direct connection of voids makes them looking wider and it becomes easier to introduce sunrays, but some places are not appropriate to be seen from other places. For example, the private courtyard is not proper to be seen from the entrance porch, and cars of garage are not to be seen from the living room either. This bended connection of voids protects privacy and controls the scenes not in an exclusive way, but in a simple and open way.

As you can see, White Cave House has a series of another worlds inside. The privacy of those spaces is controlled but they are not separated and exclusive. And the light coming from the next void always hints the existence of ‘another’ another world, and what we propose is the life with such extended and controlled open-air space inside of the house.

Drawing

Drawing

Category: House

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