House in Horinouchi by Kota Mizuishi

31 October 2011

This top-heavy house by Japanese architect Kota Mizuishi overlooks a river in west Tokyo.

The steel-clad upper floor of the two-storey House in Horinouchi cantilevers forward to create a small sheltered car parking space below.

This upper floor houses a bedroom, a kitchen/dining room and a living room, where two projecting windows integrate a narrow desk and a balcony.

A ladder leads up from this floor to a mezzanine loft.

A master bedroom and bathroom are located on the ground floor.

We've published a few popular stories about residences in Japan in recent weeks, including one screened by a grid of timber louvres - see all our stories about Japanese houses here.

Photography is by Hiroshi Tanigawa.

Here's a little more text from Mizuishi:

River side house / House in Horinouchi

This is a very small house built on the triangle site where the river and the road were crossed and made to the acute angle.

For the dead-end road, it became a plan in various regulations for obtaining special permission.

Residents are husband and wife and a little girl.

Although it was a novel site of a limited area, since a river was faced through a bank and a promenade, I would like to design various relations with the river.

The building is the form that cut an acute angle part on a triangle plan derived from the site. Furthermore,it got the maximum volume of hip roof of three planes in restriction of setback-line.

Although the level 0 floor was a private space, it limits for dividing with the curtain of a race in the door, stairs, storage, etc. except for a bathroom. It enabled it to feel a spread.

The level+1 floor is devided into small areas by structural narrow walls, being connected with one by the ridgeline of a roof. So there are different open feelings and the relations with the river each.

That is

1. dining&kitchen / The west side space up the stairs is the largest planarly, and has high ceiling with a feeling of rise towards the roof top.

2. living / The central space is low ceilinged,and has full-opening windows on both sides as a balcony and the bay window that spreads outward with a feeling of floating

3. spare room / The east side space in the deepest is a form which is narrowed down to the direction of flow of the river, and is a space watching the light to insert earlier of the abyss.

4. loft / The space with two skylights is a space looking down at the river and looking up at the sky.

The limited volume snuggles up to the river, and I think that I was able to make various space that can live while looking for a favorite place to stay.