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K House by D.I.G Architects and Nawakenji-m

Amy Frearson

22 August 2012

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This small faceted house by Japanese studios D.I.G Architects and Nawakenji-m is embedded in a steep slope overlooking the city of Nagoya (+ slideshow).

The architects excavated into the hill to level the site and created a large living room on the sunken floor.

The front door leads onto a upper deck suspended across the breadth of the house, where metal stairs lead down to the level below.

There are no windows on the street-facing elevations, but a glazed wall spans the back of the house and slides open onto a terrace with more faceted walls.

Photography is by Tomohiro Sakashita.

Here's some more information from D.I.G Architects:

K House

A small house located on a steep slanting slope. The client simply wanted a life with a blessing of nature nearby and the beautiful townscape in distant.

Left only with a very narrow flat part which is barely enough for a car, the site was steeply sloped down, almost like a cliff.

We first had an idea to excavate the ground to generate a living space. Corresponding the nature form, heterogeneous and flexible space would retrieve the enchantment of the site.

Not a house constructed on a cliff, but a habitat generated by the nature form of the cliff. A habitat like a pit or a shed later discovered in the terrains of landscape.

So we dig the earth to make the "floor". Then a "sail" was set on that dent.

Site plan

The structural image of the generation of this "sail" is that the closed and self-contained systems, like a polyhedron or a sphere, came down to the site and was spread up through anchoring to the earth.

Upper floor plan – click above for larger image

Now we've got a certain volume on a steeply slanting surface wrapped with a pitted earth and the sail-like tent on top. Then we put a flat and straight deck bridging the vacant space.

Lower floor plan – click above for larger image

There's no function assigned for this deck for the moment. But you might have moments in the life surrounded and protected by the earth that you need a place detached from the ground.

Section – click above for larger image

There's no partition dividing space, but level differences by a deck and a pit that generate characteristics for the empty space. The uses are not regulated except the bathroom.