This is a private residence for a family of three built on a very particular landscape in the suburban Niigata, Japan. It is on a corner of peach garden in between a historical hinterland of farm villages along the Nakanokuchi River and a heavy traffic highway passing through the whole Niigata prefecture in front.
The context forms strong, but in a way less respectful, juxtapositions with arrogant billboards and stores along the highway and delicate environment of the farm village, that is composed of Japanese vernacular warehouses called “Kura” and houses surrounded with greenery of the hedge.
We have been critically confronted an issue of the suburban landscape today by accepting the incoherency, carefully observing these aspects and precisely reacting to it, consequently design process was naturally focused on editing the spatial configuration of all part of life in relation to the fragmented environment.
The courtyard typology particularly here works as an apparatus unifying the fragmented environment. On the ground floor, three main volumes independently accommodating tearoom, walk-in closet and individual room create a courtyard with appropriate distance and relation to the outside.
