Hasami House | Jima Design

Hasami House is a home for a family with 2 young kids. It has been designed with spatial diversity as its main aim because children spend so much of their growing up time in square boxes for bedrooms and living rooms. They go from home to school to more rooms like boxes. Kids definitely feel and act better when they are outside and unrestricted, so in addition, creation of spaces that simulate a more natural environment was important in the development of this home. The walls are not just 90° vertical walls,  and some walls are even curved, not straight. Not only are the walls interesting themselves, but they work to create unusual shaped spaces for the family to enjoy. The home is essentially one large room with these unusual spaces created within.The only room with 4 walls and a door is the bathroom. The unusual shaped spaces and the lack of enclosed rooms give the kids’ brains a different view and experience to that which they are typically exposed to in everyday lives.

In addition, variations in the materials, angles, colours, and sizes of the walls, create an environment that is physically and mentally stimulating to keep the family healthy. We know that we need to move our bodies to be physically healthy and we need to exercise our brains to prevent brain deterioration. For increased physical movement there is a climbing ladder for the kids to access the second floor and a large raised step in the living area to encourage natural exercise. The movement patterns within the house are designed so that there is more than one way to access the different areas of the house, creating choices for our brains. The unusual shapes, colours, and spaces intrigue the brain and add an element of fun to the home.

The family own a quality crafted scissors factory, so it was decided that scissors would be the design theme for the home. Translating ‘scissors’ into Japanese, the house became Hasami House. In this way, the home is completely original and holds special meaning for the family. The scissors motif can be seen in the wall angles and in the custom door handles.

Hasami House was fun to create but also challenging. The design of this project required not only creating a variety of spatial designs that would impress the family members, but also designing them so that they connected with each other. A regular home is like a toy box filled with wooden blocks stacked on one another, however, here is a home filled with cubes, spheres, cones, and pyramids. Connecting these different shapes together was the biggest challenge of this project.

Hasami House is a unique collection of spaces that lets family members feel differently depending on where in the house they choose to spend their time.