“I don’t know what lies ahead, but for now I’d like to be surrounded by my beautiful collection.”
The client had two specific requests: he wanted a house that had a gallery space and the flexibility that would enable him to accommodate diverse changes in daily life. Thus, we wanted to create a residence that could achieve these functions in a high grade manner but also at low cost.
House IM is situated on a plot of land 218 m2 in size. The building itself is a 4-m high 10 x 10-m box shape, sitting on a flat reinforced concrete foundation rising 50 cm above the ground with a 1-m overhang around the perimeter. The exterior wall was given a mottled finish in a cloud motif and high windows were installed all around the building to bring the house closer to nature. The expand metal ramp provides access to the residence, floating up to the entrance and leading visitors from the outside world into the client’s daily life.
The interior of the building is divided into the necessary functions and spaces not by structural members but a 1.9-m high blindfold wall and furniture. The spaces are gently connected to each other without complete separation, so that it is basically a one-room space of about 100 m2. By slanting all the roofs and ceilings down towards the courtyard, the view beyond the high windows running around the building blends into the sky, so that when you look to the courtyard, you can enjoy the maximum view of the sky and nature. The square design with the courtyard at the centre and the high windows that give the same access to the outside world in all directions are devices to deprive people of their sense of orientation and free them of direction.
Meanwhile, the house, built as a conventional wooden construction on a flat stage-like foundation, is structurally supported by the outer walls and columns for the courtyard. This enables the client to redesign the large one-room space quite easily if he wishes to do so in future to suit his life stage – as a gallery, as individual rooms, or necessary space for raising children.
House IM is my projection of a long-lasting residence where the client can enjoy his everyday life.
Teruo Miyahara Miyahara Architect Office
