AIDA-SOU

1995 -

 

This residence was designed for an “extended family” consisting of a mother, two daughters, another adult man and woman, and six dogs, which in some ways resembles a multi-family apartment complex. Surrounding a central courtyard is a curving ramp to which each of the “rooms” is connected in the manner of a lodging house, but here the “rooms” are not completely closed-off residential units as they would be in an ordinary apartment house. Kitchenettes, showers, and so forth can be shared or used separately depending on individual residents’ degree of maturity or intimacy. A grouping of these units forms an area, described as a “house” based on its organization although differing structurally from a conventional house. The “rooms” complement and complete one another not only in terms of facilities but in various other ways, and the residents use the ramp, or the earthen floor or veranda, to engage in selective communication as if visiting one another.
This project is not modeled on the formal conception of “individual living units.” Rather, it is a move in the opposite direction, towards a smooth and flexible reinstatement of the mechanisms of community interaction that have totally disintegrated in today’s society. The image is of a residential system with fluid, natural and unforced continuity within itself and linkage with broader society.

location Takarazuka City, Hyogo Pref.
principal use apartment house
completion date 1995
total floor area 198m2
structure wood, partly reinforced concrete
2 stories