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House O Tateyama Japan

Sou Fujimoto

issue 12 House O

There is much to like about the buildings of Tokyo architect, Sou Fujimoto. The 38-yearold is carving a big name internationally as a protagonist of what he calls the primitive future seeking out new geometric orders, composition and spatial relativity through manipulation of basic geometries.
Im interested in creating a sort of situation in which human habitation develops around the idea of living inside a nest or cave, Fujimoto says. A nest he describes as a place for people, which is very well prepared, in which everything is assembled and very functional. A cave is just raw space, which people need to explore and find their own comfort within....a situation where people can use space creatively. I prefer cave-like unintentional space, something between nature and artefact. One recently completed project, House N, comprises three white concrete cubes, one inside the other inside the other, with large openings cut out of the concrete fabric of each to let in light and air. The outermost shell is all-enveloping, creating a covered semi-indoor garden. The second shell encloses a limited indoor space. The third sits deep within the outer two, creating a small, secure interior space. Fujimoto describes life within the house as like living among clouds.a distinct boundary is nowhere to be found, except for a gradual change in the domain. You could say that an ideal architecture is an outdoor space that feels like the indoors and an indoor space that feels like the outdoors. In a nested structure, the inside is invariably the outside and vice versa. His most radical project to date is Final Wooden House, a tiny 4m cubic box set in a copse of trees in Kumamoto, on Kyushu, Japans third largest island. Resembling an elaborate woodblock puzzle, the house is assembled from massive cedar beams, stacked and piled endlessly to make walls, floors and ceilings; creating, in the process, a series of flexible, interlocking, multilevel spaces. I wanted to see if I could make, simultaneously, primitive yet new architecture, Fujimoto says. This coastal dwelling, House O, in Tateyama, in the Chiba prefecture near Tokyo, is yet another of Fujimotos plays in the manipulation of composition and space. Set on a rocky outcrop at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, the house is conceived as a continuous single space. Seen in plan it resembles the branch of a tree, leading the visitor on a seamless journey, uninterrupted by walls or doors. Separation of functions and privacy are created with each crook and crank and fold in the plan.

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Simple and complex at the same time, the house is above all what Fujimoto describes as architecture of distance. Here, in this concrete bunker, his deft manipulation of spaces affords its inhabitants long and near views and grand panoramic vistas over the Pacific Ocean. Creating architecture is nothing more than creating various distances, he says. Fujimotos early design strategy, in response to his clients wishes to make the most of the spectacularly wild coastline, was for a linear form, a simple Miesian box, stretched across the site, facing the ocean. But views are made from more than single experiences. So, Fujimoto began manipulating the form, assembling first a series of boxes to control and frame vistas to take in the craggy rocks and irregular water inlet and other key near and distant views, finally tying them together in a carefully choreographed sequence that culminated in the tree-branch composition of the final plan. He also wanted the house to appear at one with its rocky terrain on approach from landside. Hence, on arrival, the visitor is confronted by a monolithic, irregular concrete box, its starkness tempered only by a couple of solitary palms and no clue to any obvious point of entry. But once inside the views explode through walls of frameless glass as the visitor moves along the buckled plan. At each fold, the three metre wide section shifts to create greater depth and incident in plan. I wanted to create a feeling of looking out from the recesses of a cave, Fujimoto says. With the concrete too, there are distinct differences between the exterior and interior. The outside is coarsely finished, achieved by using planks of rough timber formwork. The interiors, by contrast, are defined by more precise and pristine cast surfaces; made by casting the concrete against 45mm cedar planks. Unified as a single monolith, this subtle shift acknowledges each surfaces response to nature and man, with the heavier texture resonating with the jagged rocks outside, compared with the more tactile and human scale inside. And there is rigour and robustness in finishes and detail: the roof is kept to an absolute minimum in fine steel plate; windows are conceived of as walls of 15mm frameless glass; double-leaf doors are set flush with internal and exterior concrete surfaces to maintain the illusion of mass. Services, too, are reduced and discrete, integrated with walls and floor with finesse. Floors reflect the transition from wild exterior to controlled interior with stone surfaces flowing into white painted timbers, terminating in a sitting room of tatami mats, as a fitting sign of a truly Japanese interior. Fujimoto allows himself a solitary moment of expression with the glass front door. As the only frame in the entire house, a consistent section of dark timber wraps around the door head, sill and jambs, responding to human scale without diminishing the architectural strategy of the house. JR

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A monolithic, irregular concrete box, its starkness tempered only by a couple of solitary palms and no clue to any obvious point of entry

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Here, in this concrete bunker, the deft manipulation of spaces affords its inhabitants long and near views and grand panoramic vistas over the Pacific Ocean
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Liquid Applied Membrane Waterproof Plywood t12 Double Styroform t35 Slav PlateAPA23 200

130 100 9

Flashing/grass hold Steel Plate t4.5 Gilded

Liquid Applied Membrane Waterproof Plywood t12 Double Styroform t35 Slav PlateAPA23
200

130 100 9

Flashing/grass hold Steel Plate t4.5 Gilded

Wall: Architectual Concretet Japan cedar Form 200

Ceiling Plaster board t9.5 Emulsion Painted

Ceiling Plaster board t9.5 Emulsion Painted

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tempered glass t15 CH2600

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Wall: Architectual Concretet Japan cedar Form

CH2600

tempered glass t15

315

210

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Counter Table

135 75

2295

450

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750

Kitchen counter

Floor Heating:Heating Film 900 1FL115 Shelf 900 65

FloorWooden Flooring t15 Lauan Plywood t15 Insulation Board t30 50 65

1FL115

Floor Heating:Heating Film

FloorWooden Flooring t15 Lauan Plywood t15 Insulation Board t30

65

485

Shelf BFL485

FloorWooden Flooring t15 Lauan Plywood t15 Insulation Board t30

600

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300

3060

300

3350

Kitchen

Dining room

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65

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PIT

50 65

SUS Channnel 32550

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Project Statement A weekend house for a couple located on a rocky coast two hours drive from Tokyo. They plan to settle down in this place in the future. The site is a rocky outcrop facing the Pacific Ocean with approaches sloping down to the water. The characteristic of the plan, imagined like the branches of a tree, is a continuous one room. All the required spaces entrance, living area, dining area, kitchen, bedroom, Japanese-style room, study room and bathroom are arranged in this continuous one room. The request from the client is for a house with feeling of ocean nearby. I thought of creating various oceans: panoramic view of the ocean, ocean looking from recesses of a cave, enclosed ocean and place projected above the ocean. Oriented in different directions, you can find various views of the ocean as you walk through the house. The living area, bedroom and bathroom, each have their own unique relationship with the ocean. You could say the house is akin to a walking trail along the coast; you could happen on a panoramic view, sometimes feel the ocean at your back or find the ocean through a small gap. Comfortable spaces are scattered along this trail. Interminable spaces continuing over and over without any clear borders. I wanted the architecture to be primitive, between natural and man-made. Sou Fujimoto

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parking closet tatami room kitchen dining room porch entrance living room study room closet bed room bath room

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issue 12 House O

Yet another of Fujimotos plays in the manipulation of composition and space....leading the visitor on a seamless journey uninterrupted by walls or doors, separation created with each crook and crank and fold in the plan
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Project House O Location Chiba, Japan Architect Sou Fujimoto Architects, Tokyo Structural Engineers Jun Sato Photographer Daichi Ano