This home, located in the heart of Takamatsu City, is designed for a couple and their child. The clients requested a spacious layout that maximizes the use of the plot, ensures privacy, includes an internal garage to showcase their car, and features a concrete structure with clean, simple walls. They preferred to avoid using wood or other textured materials indoors. Our design places the living room, dining room, and kitchen at the center of the property, with other rooms extending outward around these core spaces.
The house features exterior walls that fully enclose the space on all four sides, with blank areas positioned at each corner and the center of the house. These five voids provide uniform natural light, creating a bright and spacious atmosphere in the living, dining, and kitchen areas on the ground floor. The corner voids not only maintain privacy but also blend the indoor environment with the outdoors, forming open spaces that connect closely with the surrounding exterior.
▲ General layout plan
To maintain the simplicity of the interior, only four structural columns were used. Horizontal overhangs extend from these columns to support the walls and roof of both the first and second floors. Because of this design, the exterior walls do not bear the load of the upper floors or roof, allowing for narrow, continuous windows that provide 360° lighting and extend outward views without compromising privacy.
▲ First floor plan
▲ Second floor plan
This design also offers substantial cost savings during construction. The soil beneath the site is relatively soft, and a standard slab foundation would require extensive reinforcement to ensure stability. Our approach uses simple support under the four columns, reducing foundation stabilization costs to roughly a quarter of what a slab foundation would require.
▲ Conceptual analysis
Project Drawings
▲ South elevation
▲ East elevation
▲ North elevation
▲ West elevation
▲ Section A-A
▲ Section B-B
Project Information
Type: Independent residential building
Location: Takamatsu City, Japan
Architect: Fujiwaramuro Architects
Area: 131.68 m²
Year: 2019
Photographer: Katsuya Taira
Suppliers: Delta Light, Revigres, SK Kaken
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