House in Jingumae | PANDA

This house is located in an urban residential district near Omotesando, the renowned fashion center of
Tokyo. The client’s request was to incorporate natural elements in the house while keeping privacy,
which, we believe, is the most popular and universal request by clients of urban houses.This site had been
vacant for ten years before our project started, due to difficult surrounding conditions. It is located at the
corner of the L-shaped intersection, while only a very small portion of the front is open to the street and
the other four sides face neighbors’ houses at the proximate distance. Our design is focused on how to
incorporate the nature into the house, which is visible through the narrow gaps in the congested urban
environment.
Our design started from the circulation plan. Approach way and entrance are located at the extended area
of the road running south-north direction at the L-shaped intersection. Next to the entrance area is a
terrace, which is enveloped in two-story -high walls, creating an exterior void serving as s light well.
Once you enter the property, the sight of neighboring houses vanishes instantly. The second floor terrace
protrudes into the exterior void, and a diagonally inserted wall, which directs one’s eyes towards the open
view, divides the terrace into the living room area and the dining room area. The circulation route,
starting from the entrance and leading up the straight stairs, terminates at the terrace on the loft floor. This
terrace is enveloped in high walls in the same manner as the first floor. The walls shut off the view of
neighboring houses while carefully framing the sky so that the family can enjoy their own special sky. All
rooms and utilities are placed along the circulation route. In order to facilitate the client’s leisure activities,
under-floor storage accommodating outdoor goods is provided, and the movie projector is installed so
that they can enjoy movies projected onto the large wall above the living room. After careful studies,we
worked out this formal composition, and are very glad to find that it fits perfectly in this L-shaped lot
after 10 years of vacancy.