Japanese architect Kimihiko Okada has completed a spiralling house on stilts in Hiroshima.
Raised up by metal columns, the two-storey residence, named Toda House, wraps around a courtyard garden.
Residents can walk underneath the building into this central courtyard, where a staircase leads up into a first floor lobby.
From here, rooms wind anticlockwise around the building and incrementally climb upwards.
Balconies are located at both ends of the coil and overlook the sea beyond.
Two other stories we've published about Kimihiko Okada feature mountains of aluminium foil - see them both here.
Photography is by Toshiyuki Yano.
Here's some more text from the architect:
The site is located in a residential area developed on a gentle perch in Hiroshima, overlooking a far view of the Inland Sea and Miyajima.
The land of this area is developed into platforms form with several levels.
The architecture was requested to have a view over the roof of the neighboring house, standing one level lower, and to consider security, for the site is located at the edge of the residential area, and to leave some space for extension when the client opens a small shop in the future.
To respond to the requests, the house is lifted from the ground.
Like a bird’s nest, it called up architecture’s primary function of relief from disturbance.
The house is open to the view and yet protected from the fear and environment.
Slab and roof consists of one continuous plate.
The variations of circulation and diverse spatial relations were achieved by placing a penetrating staircase.
The extended plate made possible the future extension and softened the impression from the ground level.
Spandrel wall changes its height accordingly to the thickness of slab.
Together with the slab, the spandrel wall creates the continuous but various environments.
Location: Hiroshima, Hiroshima
Principal use: private residence (extension; shop)
Structure: steel structure two-storey
Building area: 90.21sqm
Total floor area: 114.26sqm
Structural Engineer: Structured Environment
Mechanical Engineer: System Design Laboratory
Wow, that's just crazy!
I love the aesthetics of this design, but I think on a practical level I would miss have any larger, more open spaces within the interior…
Refreshingly modern, whilst not being too sterile as may recent projects from JP these days. I like it!
very clever, but the resulting spaces are simple which helps make them attractive. the connection to site and the views is fantastic.
a great house to live in!
It's interesting how it looks at night
it's lightful and ecological. lovely
Man you gotta give the japanese architects credit..they are basically redefining residential living.. not reinventing the wheel, but just absolutely pushing the envelope through experimentation.If you conceive such a project in Brisbane,Australia,you'll be branded as crazy…good work
on first sight lovely, OK, and now second sight: the spectacular concept condemns the house to be basicly to be one large corridor where all the spaces result tiny and where there is a serious lack of privacy and/or intimacy; next: single glazing all over the place (ecologic?) that's difficult to be covered when needed or do the japanese have no trouble sleeping with daylight? and the same item makes it very hard to put furniture in a decent way. and all those sacrifices to win a patio in the middle of the plot?
you have not looked at the plans or the photos with enough care. there are curtians in the bedrooms and throughout the house. living and dining on the upper levels where they both face other residences with a much lower elevation. i think privacy is all there except the study and this could have been discussed with the client.
you would have to live here to truely understand whether it works or not.
i am not saying it does but it is certainly planned with care. but i would love to live in a house where there is constant movement and always a new destination with a view.
Lovely lovely! Out of the box thinking! :)
Very nice, makes me think of House Sminke by Sharoun
its nice , but where is the space , i feel its like a path and some furniture on the sides , i cant feel the intimacy the house should have .
nothing is "ecologic" in this project. Too much heat in the summer and very cold in the winter. Does the architects never heard about thermal dispersion?
A whole lotta Corbu here.
Very unusual design! The yard – is the house… the emptiness around the "house" – is…. the house….) I like this puzzle!
good project , but i find it too small to live in!
In spite of all the small spaces, this house will give the owners an unique living experience that no other house can provide for.
Dear Rob,
thank you for your critical reviuew of my comment,
let me tell you:
first of all this is a residental house where lives one family.
I think it's plan doesn't sacrifices only to win the patio in the midle of plot,
with my opinion thiughts and ideas of Architect was to demonstate human beings intagrating into the nature in this project.
(and of course I meant's also ocological for this)
If you'll look at this little more attentionly you notice that there is curtains in the bedroom, so that is privacy/intimacy.
about furniture i think it's matter of comfort, and this is realy not designed for furniture I see.
Most of all I liked that how it is lightful, actualy daylight is very good.
I have questions about this project. how ot looks at night, how the acoustic, how it's in the rain, in the snow, in the heat, cold).
So main concept was really interesting,
but of course it can be improved so much more.
(presumably 'tricky' heat control issues aside) this project is surely very well considered. The internal spaces appear to be quite clearly defined as a series of rooms and service / circulation areas and the result is not at all 'corridor like' which might be expected from an extruded plan. (thankfully there is also a handy short-circuit stair from entrance to top level) and on top of all that (or rather below all that (ahem)) there is a bright (and partially weather protected) garden which is the entire size of the site! gorgeous photos too, and really refreshing to see an interior kitted out with the normal stuff of living!
feels like camping along a high school breeze way mid term,
maybe some separation needs to occur between the stairs (/ access / wonderful and constant glazed viewing space of internal gardens), and habitable spaces ie: Kitchen, Living etc. the view up looks as though there was more room available to play with……great stuff
Reminds me of a Le Corbusier design
#curtains
Aaaahhhh!!! says the person with OCD.
very nice fresh idea,but the cost of spatially curved double insulating glasses must be horrible
Gorgeous curves and wonderful light. Loads breathtaking vistas. I noticed the storage had backs to the glass which must result in ugly rear views from the wrong vantage point. Great design concept but impossible living spaces without privacy, warmth or the feel of home.
WOW! that's an amazing house. Although the spaces are tiny and compact for Western standards, the use of space and light, and the integration with the landscape is awesome. I would love to visit this house and experience life in it. Well done!