Rectangle of Light | Jun Igarashi Architects

Between Nature and Art There’s just some Light. It seems that it is artificial as well as it is natural. But still, an absolute existence… The parcel is located in the north of a city named Sapporo, where the housing block is split like a grid. Surrounded by 3 buildings, a tiny parcel that contains about 100 sq. meters was left over. On the east side of the building, there is a promenade with an old growth poplar forest who acts as a windbreaker. It hasn’t a direct influence over the parcel itself, but it indirectly contributes the building standard law, what causes an inevitable set back distance, so it comes to a 40 sq. meter amount of space on the inside of the parcel. I designed the space for the couple and their two children, with thinking about the height of the building First, the stairway, the bathroom, the landing, and other various spaces will be arranged in the north of the building. This is a Buffer zone between the public space and the private space. Behind it, the living room is sunk on -600mm underground. With the decision to make a semi basement, the ceiling of the room becomes higher. I designed a Buffer zone like a porch and a big bay window in the south of the LDK. Between the first and the second floor there is some duckboard, and a large bedroom on the top floor. This house doesn’t have any window to regard the outer scenery. But there are some windows needed by the same building standard law that caused the set back of the parcel. And the windows are covered by a fiber plastic board and, and the ventilation windows are covered by a wooden board (the same material as the exterior wall). Located in the southern of the building, the light collects in the rectangle and only the reflecting light shines back into the living space with a different character on every daytime. In this Buffer zone any natural thing (neither plants or flowers nor blue air) doesn’t exist. But in the back of this rectangle, its light’s origin shows face and changes little by little into another characteristic thing. It causes to found a living space of human being. “Light“ and “Darkness”. The words sounds pretty simple, but this also could be the world’s origin. These are my recent interests.