The house has a strong contrast between its exterior secrecy and its opening to the interior garden. The relationship with the interior garden achieves an explosion of space and light, manages to energize the movements between the rooms, enlarges them by breaking their limits, and achieves a suggestive and interesting visual relationship between all the parts of the house.
Constructively, the material used for the foundations and basements is reinforced concrete that is left exposed in certain areas, since the basement is not completely buried. Lauan wood, a type of tree common in South Asia, is used for the structure. And for exterior cladding, stairs, and railings, galvanized steel is used.
Loop Terrace by Tomohiro Hata Architects and Associates. Photography by Toshiyuki Yano
Loop Terrace by Tomohiro Hata Architects and Associates. Photography by Toshiyuki Yano
Description of project by Tomohiro Hata Architects and Associates
The proposal consists of a small, private house in a dense urban neighborhood. Like a valley, the site is surrounded by buildings on all four sides; the client wanted to build a house that would bring about, even if modestly, a sense of peace and fulfillment between the inside and outside.
When I contemplated the rich and mature relationship between the inside and outside in our country's cultural climate, the first example that came to mind was the Katsura Imperial Villa (referred to as Katsura). The design of this small house began from my process of looking deeper into the Katsura in my own way.
As I studied the inside/outside relationship as evident in the design of Katsura, I rediscovered various elements that lead to its sense of pleasantness. I contemplated ways to implement this knowledge that I had extracted from the Katsura which also has a grand garden in the small and dense urban "valley." I thought that, if I cut into Katsura's plan and rotate it so that it encloses into a circle, perhaps I could "fold up" the inside/outside spatial relationship into a compact version.
This resulted in a new form in which a shallow, engawa (wooden walkway connecting to the windows and sliding doors in the rooms of traditional Japanese houses.) like space that connects and supports the rich inside/outside relationships extend in a three-dimensional circle, looping around.
I would be very pleased if, through this project, I was able to demonstrate new possibilities for an urban house based on the uniquely rich and fertile inside/outside relationships of our country.
