Tsumari House, Contemporary Japan Home, Tokamachi Building, Architect, Residential, Design
Tsumari House, Tokamachi, Nigata
New Japanese Home – design by Future-scape Architecture in Tokyo, Japan
17 Apr 2010
Cottage in Tsumari
Design : Daigo Ishii + Future-scape Architects
A low-cost public cottage for locals and visitors, located within a beech woods park.
This is the region with heaviest snowfall in Japan, often as deep as 4m.
It was an architecture in that two volumes were combined.
One is the outward form Big Box. It was determined as the maximum volume possible from the budget with local details for withstanding heavy snow without maintenance in the winter, when the cottage becomes isolated. The big volume also enables comfortable stay in the summer.
Other is named Tube. There the essential functions for stay were placed in a row. Tube is bent complicatedly by the restriction of Big Box, and Big Box is cut irregularly by the bent Tube. The gap between both generates an unexpected space.
The contrast of the color or activity between both offers different positions for seeing the woods.
The exterior gives similar impression to the local houses, which the people are used to seeing. So, they aren’t conscious of it: a consideration to the fact that the site is within a park.
At the same time, it is not the same but delicately different in the degree that they cannot regognize its difference when they observe in detail. It is an attitude for designing the new architecture in the region with mature context.
Stepping to the interior, the impression changes. A new contrast arises between the familiar exterior and the unexpected interior, adding to the contrast between Big Box and Tube.
Cottage in Tsumari – Building Information
architect: Daigo Ishii + Future-scape Architects
collaborators:
structure engineer: Shoichi Nagumo (Takumi Design Office)
mechanical engineer: Masaya Uchida (Takuetsu Corporation)
cooperation: Hiroyuki Kato
furniture designer: Daigo Ishii + Future-scape Architects
location: Tokamachi, Nigata, Japan
client: Tokachi Region Secretariat
use: public cottage
total area: site area : 240.20 m2, building area : 52.33 m2
total floor area : 67.48 m2
completion date: Mar 2000
structure: wood
exterior finish: cedar board painted by oil stain
interior finish floor : cork flooring, cedar board painted by oil stain and clear lacquer
wall : Japanese linden plywood painted by Chinese ink, cedar board painted by oil stain and clear lacquer
ceiling : Japanese linden plywood painted by Chinese ink, cedar board painted by oil stain and clear lacquer
Photo Credits : Cottage in Tsumari
Photo by Koji Fujii (Nakasa & Partners)
Tsumari house photos by Future-scape Architecture
Tsumari cottage images / information from Daigo Ishii + Future-scape Architects
Location: Tokamachi, Nigata, Japan, East Asia
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