Kazakoshi Residence

As the owner and designer of this house, I have lived in the city for over 20 years.
A small studio in a multi-tenant building where you live alone.
A spacious studio where couples can live. A house with family and business associates.
I had a daily routine to renovate used properties within a 1km radius in line with changes in my lifestyle, which was also an extension of my work.
There was an option to renovate it as it is and continue the urban life like a hermit crab,
I had the opportunity to talk with my family and colleagues and build a house in the natural environment.

At the planned site in the center of Karuizawa Town, the wind and scenery blowing from the untouched forest on the south side created a feeling of openness beyond the site.
The planned site has a ground surface that is about 1.5 m higher than the adjacent land in the east and west, and at the same time, it is divided into rectangles, so there is a problem that it has to approach the adjacent building.

Naturally, I decided to start with a rectangular plan of 8 ken x 4 ken connecting "north of the road" and "south of the scenery".
When launching the plan, the roof shape and exterior wall materials were derived from the existing buildings in the east and west, and the exterior design of the gable roof with siding boards was adopted as a building that blends in with the surroundings, as it had existed here before.
Many kinds of new trees will be planted on the north side, which has a parking lot on the side of the road, and it is expected that the façade of the building will be covered in the future.

In the living room with a height of 5.5m, which has a bookshelf as the main structure instead of the large black pillar, three different "veranda" spaces are arranged in the south, east, and west, where the body is entrusted to the outside and the inside.
"Southern porch" as a floor leading to a large forest. The "eastern porch" as a bench that continues from the entrance that can also be used as a stool. "Western porch" as a sofa embedded in the kitchen back counter of the center of the house These three porch will be an important place to feel the distance between self and nature and the distance between self and others.