BetsuBetsu House / House with Wataridono

On this 200m2 site, we wanted to design a cost-efficient, high-performance residence for a family of four, but also create a space that was modern with a sense of ‘wa’. This project was largely inspired by shinden-zukuri of the Heian era – a main building with a number of secondary buildings joined by corridors and bridges. In order to accomplish this, the plan is split into three, and the central part slides and creates six spaces, where there was once only one. This new plan has the potential for a wide variety of applications, as well as blurs the lines between outside and inside, merges the exterior and the interior to create an illusion of extra space and harmony between spaces. A watadono, or roofed-corridor, echoing shinden-zukuri, ties all these spaces together, and creates an unbroken view between the living space, kitchen and interior courtyard.

With this resolution, it was possible to create both versatile interior spaces, and calming exterior courtyards with trees and plants, without creating a sense of claustrophobia. The watadono not only acts as a corridor, but also an entrance , a partition and a balcony, and ties the whole plan together smoothly. Classical Japanese architecture has the amazing ability to create a sense of depth, of harmony with its surroundings by intelligently utilising space, textures and materials to challenge the understanding of interior and exterior. Users can see natural light moving throughout spaces, feel subtle movements of the air as the wind blows, and experience the changing of the seasons, all from within their homes. This is the sense we have believe we have captured in the BetsuBetsu house.

View the complete gallery