Little Valley House | Flat House

This is a two-family house in a quiet residential area of Tokyo.

Our clients hoped for three things: a comfortable home for their parents, a place to enjoy nature, and a lifestyle that would allow both families to browse collection of 4000 books.

We were involved from the very initial stage and worked together with the clients to find land for the house and fortunately, we were able to find a land suitable for three-story cube.

In this house, we focused on designing a relationship between the two families. Originally, we thought of avoiding typical two-family house structure where parents residence is on the first floor and the childrens residence is on the second floor, for this may divide lives completely between the parents and the children. However at the same time, we wanted to avoid way of life where all family members share spaces all the time, for this would make everyone tired. Consequently, we decided to base our design on typical two-family house structure yet add an element for family sharing by offering a courtyard in the center of the building. This courtyard and the library which faces the courtyard become the sharing space for the two families. Parents can come to the courtyard and the library without passing through children's residence. But this library is located on the opposite side of children's living room across the courtyard, so both families naturally have opportunities to see and communicate with each other.
The courtyard is on the bottom of the trench that is hollowed out from 3 story high cube, and it is covered with turf grass. This creates a feeling of being enveloped in a little valley of a small mountain.

We hope the two families enjoy communication by the presence of the courtyard and the library in this house.