This house located in the suburbs of Tokyo is beside the railway track. There was the old wooden house which was built over 40 years ago, before rebuilt. Although the site is in the special condition, it was not devised at all. Therefore the inhabitants were annoyed by the din of the trains and exposed to the glance of the innumerable passengers there for long time. The owner required us to design the house in which her family would live calmly. So we suppress the entire height to low and the windows to minimum in order to decrease the area which is exposed to the air propagation din. Against the shut outer walls, there are no partition in the internal spaces. She requested that the aged grandfather would live at the ground floor. And the enclosed external spaces in which he would be refreshed were required, too. As the solution, we decided to scoop out three courtyards in this house. As for them, the size and depth are different. To be improved the continuousness of the inside and outside, there are no pillars around the center courtyard.
The slab of 1st floor and the descending walls are hung by the steel frame. When the wooden sashes are fully opened, the courtyard become one of the internal spaces without the roof. The big kitchen where she cooks every day for her families is arranged in the south of the center courtyard. And the bathroom is in the north of it. If she is in the kitchen, she always feels the sign of her families there.
