Scaled Back House en Kamakura City, Japón

“transformation achieved by ‘reducing’”

A 43-year-old wooden house has been renovated based on the design that was jointly developed with the owner.
The owner has two family members and moved in to this house 4 years ago. The majority of the house at the back was renovated when they moved in, except for the entrance, which had a waiting lobby for editors to wait for the previous owner, who happened to be a novelist. The waiting lobby took a decent amount of space despite the fact that it was not used in full. The owners wanted to use that space for parking, so we decided to scale down the house.

The greater part of the house remained the same even after the renovation, so this time we preserved the existing structure and linked the new façade to the existing building.

The outer wall of the façade is set up to trace the cross section of the house. It was decided that mortar would go well with the old structure and simple design, which will create a sense of warmth and heritage. The new gable board color is matched with the existing structure to achieve a sense of continuity.

“Reducing” could mean more.

Scaling back does not mean just reducing floor space. It is a way to achieve a comfortable life for the family who live in this house today.

“Achieving energy efficiency by having a compact house”

“Reducing maintenance cost”

“Designing a cozy environment for the family”

There are a lot more we can do in other potential projects.