N-House is a low budget project private residence would automatically be long stretched. Designed by Frank la Riviere Architects Inc, N-House was constructed on a deep plot of land in Aomori prefecture, in Owani-shi, Japan. This allowed for an exploration of a particular feel of transparence by making the depth of the space optically measurable through the introduction of in-between zones to separate the main spaces and cut through the space in the cross direction. The house exhibits a spatial quality that allows the experience of several other spaces beyond, extending the overall limits of the space.

In the length from the entrance, one can see through the living room, dining room and the Japanese room into the garden behind the house. These in-between zones work as separators as well as connectors, and as part of the circulation accessing the functions in the service zone (North-side), such as the staircase to the second floor, the bathroom, storage and toilets.

A higher degree of openness was created on the South side that allows for a strong relation with the exterior and lets in a lot of natural light and sun light. Both the client requirement for a warm house and good views of the surrounding mountains and ski-slopes were solved in this way. The sun light warms up the house and the windows give strategic views of the surrounding. Energy efficiency through daylight penetration.

The main structure is a wooden column and post structure left exposed in the ceilings of the main spaces. Only a few finishing materials are used and in a clear order. The Japanese room and the master bed room is finished with a tatami floor while the spare bedroom has a floor of Larch plywood stained whitish the same as the ceilings of the main spaces. Only the in-between zones have a lowered ceiling that accentuates the meaning of these zones.

This is not a house built out of separate rooms but of spaces with transition zones, made changeable with sliding doors. Construction from simple but raw materials cut to modules of a dimension system gives homogeneity to the spaces.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 11th, 2009 at 5:38 pm and is filed under Home Design Ideas. Tags: Aomori, Aomori Prefecture T?hoku region, energy efficiency, Frank la Riviere Architects, Japan, japan house, Japanese room, Owani-shi, Riviere Architects Inc, warm house. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.