A extended, horizontal block is hoisted above the ground on a collection of concrete pods, providing views of paddy fields and mountains for the home, gallery and studio of an embroidery artist in Japan’s Shiga Prefecture .
The artist’s residence by Tokyo studio Satoru Hirota Architects sits amongst a principal street and rice fields on the outskirts of a city in Shiga, a region set about Lake Biwa – Japan’s biggest freshwater lake.
Three separate concrete volumes containing a gallery, study and a traditional Japanese room – recognized as a washitsu – make up the ground floor. Paved terraces set amongst every give separate entrances for the residence and the gallery.
These concrete pods also act as podiums to assistance a bigger block that lies horizontally across their tops.
Even though the ground-floor blocks – as properly as a garage with a faceted porch set at an angle to the property – are smooth and light in colour, the upper floor has a dark, textured finish.
This colouring was created to cause the ground floor to visually recede. The aim was to emphasise the upper volume, giving it the appearance of “floating in the rural landscape”. This prompted the project name, Floating Home.
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To safeguard the residence from noise pollution from the adjoining street and to create a backyard to the rear, the architects erected a curving concrete wall around the base of the house.
“In order to protect the residents from the surrounding noise, the house has been surrounded by a gradual circular wall,” explained studio founder Satoru Hirota. “ When you enter within of the wall, there is a serene room.”
The wall curls around a courtyard and garage close to the street, below the overhanging upper floor, and encloses a lawn at the rear of the property.
Gravelled pathways and paved terraces provide routes by means of and around the base of the home, although a flight of stairs ascends between two ground-floor blocks to an elevated residing spot.
The stairwell separates the artist’s studio from the primary living location and a bedroom at the opposite finish of the block.
A prolonged balcony runs along the face of the glass-fronted block, offering views above the agricultural landscape and to a mountain past.
“You can overlook the rural landscape and mountains from the living room, and can enjoy the feeling of floating,” said the architects.
Photography is by Satoru Hirota Architects.
Undertaking credits:
Architect: Satoru Hirota Architects – Satoru Hirota, Yasuko Hirota
Structural style : Nieda + Hisaeda Architects – Taizen Nieda, Mitsuyoshi Yoshida
Contractor: Tsuda Constructions – Yusuke Kishimoto
Web site plan 
Ground floor plan 
2nd floor prepare 
Section Dezeen
