
Just above we have an intriguing asymmetric tunnel that leads trough a black facade into an even more interesting interior, all these being located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan.The home is designed by Tokyo based Studio Sugawaradaisuke and it`entitled Kiritoshi House, a shelter created for a family of four on the rural perimeter of residential district in Oamishirasato. In contemporary Japanese architecture I think we can agree that the homes are tending to close up to the exterior and be lighten up in innovative ways, efficient, without using huge windows.The home in discussion does not obey these unwritten rules and opens up in the back to the neighboring fields, therefore offering the living room and the kitchen a huge advantage.
“The client’s goal was to link the interior of the house with the scenery outside, letting the family live intimately with the surrounding environment,”explains architect Daisuke Sugawara:
The functional scheme of the interior space is realized in order to sustain the phrase above, having the bedrooms grouped at the front of the house. The whole home takes advantage of the open plan. The living room and kitchen are embracing the natural light and the environment first hand.”The building provides an expansive view that allows the natural sunlight and fresh air in the house,” added Sugawara.
In order to create warmth in the interior, the wooden ceiling in the living room is mirrored with wooden panels on the floor of the whole home. The walls connecting the two are painted in stark white and this monotony is disturbed by asymmetrical triangular openings and facets creating a highly dynamic, light and warm interior.Photo Courtesy to Takumi Ota.
Here’s more information from Sugawaradaisuke:
Kiritoshi House
This house is designed for a married couple with two children, and is located in Oamishirasato, Chiba Prefecture. The building provides an expansive view that allows the natural sunlight and fresh air in the house, so that the residents enjoy the life in the green ambiance.
The building sits on the borderline between the new residential area and the pastoral fields. The client’s goal was to link the interior of the house with the scenery outside, letting the family live intimately with the surrounding environment. The exterior is finished as a simple box, allowing the residence to blend in easily with the rest of the surroundings.
The interior spaces are constructed according to the three-dimensional cellular structure, and in the middle is the largest space for the family members to gather. This maximizes the physically sensed largeness and at the same time, each room’s storage capacity.
The relativeness of the scenery, space and body changes dramatically by moving from each space to space. The physical perception experienced in this house is like that in an excavation (=”Kiritoushi”) – the fusion of both natural and artificial dimensions.











Project name: Kiritoshi House
Location: Oamishirasato city, Chiba Pref
Concept design: Sugawaradaisuke
Schematic Design: Sugawaradaisuke
Design Development: Sugawaradaisuke + Osato Sogokanri
Construction: Osato Sogokanri
Principal use: residence
Structure: wooden structure
Site area: 228.72 sqm
Building area: 103.98 sqm
Floor area: 91.89 sqm
Number of stories: 1