Mountain/Opening House
EASTERN design office

Photo © Koichi Torimura

The building is built on the slope of a hill with an elevation of 330 meters. The level difference of the site is 8 meters. Taking advantage of the slope, one of the characteristics of this site, an architecture which suits the desires of two persons is built.　

The dream of this architecture is like a voyage setting out.

The plan is designed in L-shape. The edge protruding greatly from the slope is an opening that swallows the outside. Straight eaves run amidst the curvilinear forms of the topography.  The eaves project in a powerful manner not to be beaten by the inherent force of the topography. They are thin, thick, short, long and carved.


Photo © Koichi Torimura

Photo © Koichi Torimura

Photo © Koichi Torimura

To be protected by the house, yet at the same time have the feeling of flying away.  Making two extremes into one.  This is realized in the architecture in the corresponding forms of the upper and lower floors.

It is a cave and also a nautical form.
It is flying away, yet it is anchored.
It is drifting, yet it is homely.
It is sky, and it is Earth. It is far, yet it is near.


Photo © Koichi Torimura

This is a slope when architecture is erased.  The architecture of the "house" is a "mountain." The plan for this slope is to shape the mountain structurally, but that goal was to let people feel the uninterrupted flow of the curves that define the mountain.  Let the people have a sense of closeness to the wave-like mountain.  A small change to the curve will lead to a loss of balance, affecting the way openings should be designed, the mountain, and the entire architecture will also have to be change its form. However at this moment not even one person felt unnatural when standing on this undulating slope.


Sketch courtesy EASTERN design office

Sketch courtesy EASTERN design office

A person standing on a slope.  A person crouching on a slope.  A person flying off a slope.  Only on a slope can people look back on the road they've climbed and, also can look at the way they will go from now on.  It can be called a visional place that inspires people.


Sketch courtesy EASTERN design office

Three houses by EASTERN design office. The poetic descriptions are selected excerpts from the architects Anna Nakamura and Taiyo Jinno texts.

Three Houses:
Keyhole House
A House Awaiting Death
Mountain/Opening House