Silent house

Saiki city, Oita, Japan
2008.04
Weekend house
81.94m2

This small villa is located in a mountain village about an hour’s drive from Oita City. The bathroom, lounge, and bedroom are surrounded by a half-outdoor corridor.

This corridor plays a pragmatic role as a buffer space against the harsh mountain climate and to prevent the interior from being directly exposed to the outside world in case the glass or fittings are damaged when the house is not in use. In this sense, I felt that a building with a sense of depth would be more appropriate for this location than a building with fittings directly attached to an exterior wall where the interior and the exterior meet with a single piece of fittings. At the same time, it was an attempt to avoid the building being instantly recognizable from the outside by its fittings attached to the exterior walls. Something mysterious and unsure of the purpose of the building seemed more appropriate for this quiet mountain environment.

I chose concrete blocks to achieve the primitive, archaeological look and the mysterious appearance of how long the building has been there. The fact that it is there as a primitive structure of just a pile of blocks would connect it to the atmosphere of the surrounding environment.