Description

Here Waro Kishi had to solve the problem of realizing a quite large family home on difficult terrain and under particular topographical circumstances. It was not just the steep slope with rock formations that needed skilful handling, but also the position of the site, with an expansive view over the outskirts of Osaka to the sea. So the living area had to be prominently placed, with a full view of the spectacular panorama.

As in his house in Suzaku, Kishi divided the building mass into two volumes with different functions. They are supported by a solid-looking two-storey quarry-stone base with a garage built into it at street level. Adjacent to this, a staircase promenade leads up the steep slope to the intermediate space where the main entrance is placed. And in this house as well a ramp connecting the volumes and also separating them plays a central part: it runs across the access direction of the entrance, linking the structures containing bedrooms and a large terrace on the top floor to the living cube opposite. This consists of a two-storey living area and a gallery-like dining room with attached kitchen above it.

Unlike the house in Suzaku, there is no direct sense of the function areas in the separate parts of the building working together, but a distancing effect, as the openings exclusively face the sweep of landscape. Kishi emphasizes the special quality of the living area, with its partly framed, partly widely glazed outlook, in a complex disposition and interplay of air spaces, with covered and open terraces and galleries. The white-painted cubes, smoothly rendered inside, create rich nuances of light and shade.

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Originally published in: Klaus-Peter Gast, Living Plans: New Concepts for Advanced Housing, Birkhäuser, 2005.