nakano | suzuko yamada architects

A small house for a couple and their two cats. The site was a small lot in a dense residential neighborhood, past a bustling urban shopping street. The clients’ request was simple: “As long as there was an outer shell for living and space for the cats to run around, the rest could come together over time.”

We began by creating an enclosed space over the full extent of the site. In the space measuring less than 26 square meters, we placed the necessary objects of living, such as a toilet, bath, and kitchen. With the addition of components that constitute the “outer shell” for living like two stairs, a cat walkway, handrails, and a bench, the space quickly filled up.

From inside the house, it is impossible to have every object in view at once. These are massive in relation to the house itself; their scale is the same or sometimes even larger than the scale of the space. One sees only the blur of light and moist coolness on the rough surface of a concrete wall. It is unclear how far the wall continues or where it ends, appearing large and heavy. The house should belong to the inhabitant but seems to evade ownership, belonging to nobody, existing in place as if it were a mountain or the city itself.

Life takes place between the outlines of the objects. Cooking and eating, bathing and doing laundry―everything fills in the string of voids with clusters of household items. The family of objects appears to have looked for and found their places within the structure, as if settled in response to its form. Amongst and between them, the two cats slink about and wind from an open window weaves through, as light from outside swallows everything together. Both life and nature are in tension with the architecture. They exist together and sometimes connect, but never blend. The architecture triggers life and life strengthens the architecture. The goal was to create that kind of relationship in this house.

[JP]

夫婦と猫2 匹のための小さな家。都内の賑やかな商店街を抜けた先の，家々がひしめく住宅地の小さな区画が

敷地だった。まずは住まえる生活の外殻さえあれば，そして猫が遊び回ることができれば，あとは住みながら

つくる，というシンプルな要望だった。

そこで敷地いっぱいに室内空間を広げてみる。8 坪にも満たないその空間に，トイレや台所，浴室など生活

の要となるものを置いた。さらに二つの階段やキャットウォーク，手摺り，ベンチ，と生活を支える外殻を立

ち上げていく。あっという間に室内はぎゅうぎゅうになる。中に入ってしまうと，それぞれのものを一目でみ

ることはできない。それらはこの家にとってとても大きく，ものと場の大きさが同じか，ときには反転してし

まうほどだからだ。目の前にはただコンクリートのざらざらとした肌理，そこに滲む光としっとりとした冷た

さが起ち上がっている。どこまでつながっているのか，どこで終わるか見えず，大きくて重い。自分の家のは

ずなのに自分のものではなく，といって誰のものでもなく，街や山のようにただそこにあるものとして感じら

れる。

そんなものの輪郭の狭間で日々の生活は営まれる。食事をつくるのも食べるのも，風呂に入るのも洗濯をす

るのも，すべての営みは多くの生活用品の群を伴って，ひとつらなりの空間を埋めていく。群はまるで生き物

のように躯体の輪郭を探り，場を見つけ，その形に応えるように居座る。そこでは2 匹の猫も身を滑らし，窓

から入った風が抜け，外光や電灯の明るさが滲む。生活も自然も共に建築と拮抗しながらも，混ざり合うこと

なく隣り合い，時に連続する。建築が生活を起こし，また生活が建築を強めていく，そのような住まいとなる

ことを期待した。

Photography: Kei Sasaki , Naoki Takehisa