House in Yasu | Masaki Moritani

In March 2013 we started the design of this house in Yasu, Shiga Prefecture. The location is surrounded by an amazing natural environment at the limits of urban area. The site, once included in Motoyama Castle, is near to a former archery range and contains an ancient burial mound. Because of this circumstance, the consideration of concerning regulations prolonged the time of design process. A ditch protects the crossbar gate at the main entrance. According to historical documents, it was assaulted in the past by Oda Nobunaga, a japanese warlord of the late 16th century. At the same time, the mountain-side is fortified by a 5 meters high earthen wall. Motoyama Castle had already been built 500 years ago, but it is not clear if its boundaries always remained the same through time. The former building, not far from the wood, didn't make the best use of sun light. At the same time, in summer the exposition facing southwest caused some overheating issues due to setting sun. This layout was corrected with a rotation of 45 degrees, in order to face due south. The house was located more distant from trees and in its central part we created a double-height space, where light can deeply enter. With this spatial articulation, looking from the kitchen on the first floor to the living room we can now experience light in a better way. A wall perperdicular to southwest keeps the relation with the other building. Some deep niches have been opened in the living room. Horizontal windows keep visibile outside scenery, while the television, embedded in the wall, helps reducing the amount of light entering from west. In addition, clients owns a toy poodle. Within the garden we created a space where they can gather with friends watching their dogs running freely. If then they decide to have tea in the sunroom, from here they can enjoy the outside scenery changing from season to season. "When friends come for the tea, I always offer them coffee and dessert, served on a plate," the wife told. "They're very impressed, they feel like they were really at the café". The speakers inserted in the niches of the living room has a remarkable audio quality, so remarkable that "when my son, a university student, listens to the stereo, the music is so loud that I think the house is almost shaking". When we shoot the photographs of this house, a beautiful cherry tree was in bloom. People say that happiness comes in many shapes: throught architecture we can always discover new ones.