House N

This is a renovation project of a house into two-family house. Making the best use of the existing houses is the one of the most valuable solutions for sustainability in the world. Regenerating architectures leads to expanding the histories and environments of the cities and contributes to the cultures and diversities. Making the wood structure strengthened as well as beautifully designed is the main theme of this project. When the wood frames encounter the light, beauty with order would come into being.

The owner of the house wants it be renovated because her family would live with his mother. They wanted to expand the house to add the rooms. Instead of making the additional building in the small garden, the terrace is created in the small garden next to the main room functions as an outdoor room for them. Considering the existing columns and beams to design the house, the beams play the principal role.

The existing beams are placed at random, the new beams are evenly added to the frame to strengthen the structure which would bring about the sense of order and express the transitional beauty reflecting the light and creating shadows. Two beams whose size is the same size as the beams are designed as lighting equipment, and new narrow windows under the small beam provides the bright natural light, the woods and the light would be unified.

The overhung stairs of woods would create flow of spaces from the entrance to the rooms in the second floor via the main room. The desk and handrail of woods designed using the existing columns represents the conversation between the old and the new. The wood terrace enfolded by the wood wall is isolated from the nearby environment. Children would happily enjoy themselves and the family would hold barbecue a party. Nature and the wood frames mingle in this house and they would produce the order of the beauty.

YDS Architects: Yoshitaka Uchino and Mana Muraki