GarageHouse in Matsubara | Shintaro Fujiwara

This house stands in Matsubara city located in the south of Osaka prefecture, in the area where houses and factories are mixed together and co-exist. 

Because many buildings are clustered in the area, it is not the environment to hope for a nice view around the site.

As for the connecting road condition of the site, it is a corner lot.

Primary requests from the client includes garage inside the building, allowing to practice musical instruments, with a space something unique or interesting.

As the proposal, the interior space is configured with a music room at the center of the building, surrounded by living areas.

The area around the music room also functions as a sound insulation.

The music room, as a place for hobby, was designed to be constructed in concrete.

With this concrete structure, it allows to get on or put heavy stuff on top of the room.

Wooden deck with drain board structure surround the concrete box as the music room, to give an atmosphere of the exterior condition.

Standing on the wooden deck-style drain board floor and looking up, top light stretches over the whole ceiling.

The living spaces around the concrete box face to the exterior-like “interior courtyard,” with large openings.

Depending on the site condition, the idea of providing “interior courtyard” as an exterior-like interior space would be more convenient and useful than actual exterior space, and it could be one of the solutions to effectively utilize the limited site area for a private house.  

Stereotypical way of seeing a house for living, or a common, ordinary approach toward programing rooms were put aside for this project--the attitude to provide different possibilities and ideas enabled this house to be different from a plain custom-built houses.