Tato Architects has replaced all of the walls inside a traditional Japanese house with curving plywood screens .
Studio founder Yo Shimada was asked to renovate the single-storey residence for a younger couple. The developing had previously been divided into 6 principal rooms, but the Japanese architect felt an open-prepare layout would be more appropriate.
“A pure Japanese design and style, the current residence contained numerous rooms, which appeared to be unsuitable for a young couple who were starting a new daily life there,” he explained.
The entire interior was stripped bare, exposing the wooden structural framework. Storage regions and modest rooms were then constructed into a side wall, whilst the rest of the room was divided by two curving lengths of plywood.
Tato Architects first attempted out this method in 2013 for a public toilet building on Shodoshima Island, but Shimada felt that the notion would be a lot more profitable utilized to an old creating rather than a new construction.
“The tight schedule didn’t permit us to commit time seeking for a appropriate present building,” he mentioned. “Even so, since then, we have witnessed a distinctive likely for reconfigurations where spaces are divided by curved walls that are not associated to the outer construction.”
Named House in Kamisawa, the 87-square-metre structure is situated in Japan’s Hyogo Prefecture. The front of the building is made to be much more open strategy to make the most of a narrow backyard.
Two plywood screens have been extra – a single along the north-eastern side that encloses a bedroom and adjoining closet, and one particular in direction of the back that wraps a bathroom and guest bedroom.
Since of the restricted budget, the authentic plan was to use twenty-millimetre-thick plywood. On its own this materials proved to be also flimsy, so it was replaced with a framework of steel rods, sandwiched between plywood layers.
“The easy gesture designed a new room, although the history of the house remained,” added the architect.
The leftover space in front of the curved screens accommodates a living room, dining region and kitchen island. Glass walls also enable this area to be opened out to the garden, which now features a timber patio deck.
A new mortar floor was set up, integrating underfloor heating, even though the bathroom is lined with polycarbonate plastic.
There is also a modest loft room positioned above the major bedroom, which can be accessed employing a ladder.
For the house’s exterior, Shimada chose a new cladding of charred cedar boards.
Undertaking credits:
Design and style: Tato Architects – Yo Shimad
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Crew: Yo Shimada, Keita Kurokoshi
Development: Kyowa Techno
Exploded diagram 
Site strategy 
Floor program 
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