Sou FujimotoHouse OTateyama Japan

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issue 12 House O

A monolithic, irregular concrete box, its starkness tempered only by a couple of solitary palms and no clue to any obvious point of entry

There is much to like about the buildings of Tokyo architect, Sou Fujimoto. The 38-year-old is carving a big name internationally as a protagonist of what he calls the “primitive future” – seeking out new geometric orders, composition and spatial relativity through manipulation of basic geometries.

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“I’m interested in creating a sort of situation in which human habitation develops around the idea of living inside a nest or cave,” Fujimoto says. A nest he describes “as a place for people, which is very well prepared, in which everything is assembled and very functional. A cave is just raw space, which people need to explore and find their own comfort within....a situation where people can use space creatively. I prefer cave-like unintentional space, something between nature and artefact.” One recently completed project, House N, comprises three white concrete cubes, one inside the other inside the other, with large openings cut out of the concrete fabric of each to let in light and air. The outermost shell is all-enveloping, creating a covered semi-indoor garden. The second shell encloses a limited indoor space. The third sits deep within the outer two, creating a small, secure interior space.Fujimoto describes life within the house as like “living among clouds….a distinct boundary is nowhere to be found, except for a gradual change in the domain. You could say that an ideal architecture is an outdoor space that feels like the indoors and an indoor space that feels like the outdoors. In a nested structure, the inside is invariably the outside and vice versa.”His most radical project to date is Final Wooden House, a tiny 4m cubic box set in a copse of trees in Kumamoto, on Kyushu, Japan’s third largest island. Resembling an elaborate woodblock puzzle, the house is assembled from massive cedar beams, stacked and piled endlessly to make walls, floors and ceilings; creating, in the process, a series of flexible, interlocking, multi-level spaces. “I wanted to see if I could make, simultaneously, primitive yet new architecture,” Fujimoto says.This coastal dwelling, House O, in Tateyama, in the Chiba prefecture near Tokyo, is yet another of Fujimoto’s plays in the manipulation of composition and space. Set on a rocky outcrop at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, the house is conceived as a continuous single space. Seen in plan it resembles the branch of a tree, leading the visitor on a seamless journey, uninterrupted by walls or doors. Separation of functions and privacy are created with each crook and crank and fold in the plan.

Simple and complex at the same time, the house is above all what Fujimoto describes as “architecture of distance”. Here, in this concrete bunker, his deft manipulation of spaces affords its inhabitants long and near views and grand panoramic vistas over the Pacific Ocean. “Creating architecture is nothing more than creating various distances,” he says.Fujimoto’s early design strategy, in response to his clients’ wishes to make the most of the spectacularly wild coastline, was for a linear form, a simple Miesian box, stretched across the site, facing the ocean. But views are made from more than single experiences. So, Fujimoto began manipulating the form, assembling first a series of boxes to control and frame vistas to take in the craggy rocks and irregular water inlet and other key near and distant views, finally tying them together in a carefully choreographed sequence that culminated in the tree-branch composition of the final plan.He also wanted the house to appear at one with its rocky terrain on approach from landside. Hence, on arrival, the visitor is confronted by a monolithic, irregular concrete box, its starkness tempered only by a couple of solitary palms and no clue to any obvious point of entry.But once inside the views explode through walls of frameless glass as the visitor moves along the buckled plan. At each fold, the three metre wide section shifts to create greater depth and incident in plan. “I wanted to create a feeling of looking out from the recesses of a cave,” Fujimoto says.With the concrete too, there are distinct differences between the exterior and interior. The outside is coarsely finished, achieved by using planks of rough timber formwork. The interiors, by contrast, are defined by more precise and pristine cast surfaces; made by casting the concrete against 45mm cedar planks. Unified as a single monolith, this subtle shift acknowledges each surface’s response to nature and man, with the heavier texture resonating with the jagged rocks outside, compared with the more tactile and human scale inside.And there is rigour and robustness in finishes and detail: the roof is kept to an absolute minimum in fine steel plate; windows are conceived of as walls of 15mm frameless glass; double-leaf doors are set flush with internal and exterior concrete surfaces to maintain the illusion of mass. Services, too, are reduced and discrete, integrated with walls and floor with finesse. Floors reflect the transition from wild exterior to controlled interior with stone surfaces flowing into white painted timbers, terminating in a sitting room of tatami mats, as a fitting sign of a truly Japanese interior.Fujimoto allows himself a solitary moment of expression with the glass front door. As the only frame in the entire house, a consistent section of dark timber wraps around the door head, sill and jambs, responding to human scale without diminishing the architectural strategy of the house. JR

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1FL（＋115）

tempered glass t15　

1FL（＋115）

Ceiling：Plaster board t9.5 Emulsion Painted　　　

Flashing/grass holdSteel Plate t4.5Gilded

Maximum Height(+2915)

bed room

Flashing/grass holdSteel Plate t4.5Gilded

1FL（＋115）

Ceiling：Plaster board t9.5 Emulsion Painted　　　

130

9100

130

9100

Shelf

Wall:Architectual ConcretetJapan cedar Form

Waterproof Plywood t12 DoubleLiquid Applied Membrane

Styroform t35Slav Plate：APA23

Wall:Architectual ConcretetJapan cedar Form

Wall:Architectual ConcretetJapan cedar Form

Waterproof Plywood t12 Double

Liquid Applied Membrane

Styroform t35

Slav Plate：ALF23

Waterproof Plywood t12 DoubleLiquid Applied Membrane

Styroform t35Slav Plate：APA23

0 5165

300 3350 2850

Floor：Wooden Flooring t15

Lauan Plywood t15

Insulation Board t30

85 75

Kitchen counter

2915

485

Floor：Wooden Flooring t15Lauan Plywood t15Insulation Board t30

Floor Heating:Heating FilmFloor：Wooden Flooring t15Lauan Plywood t15Insulation Board t30

65

2915

CH

2600

2915

160 160

75 85

CH2600

300

150

65

200

Counter Table

600

450

Shelf

900

450

2295

315

CH

2600

315

315

PIT

300 3060

150

BFL（－485）

300

900

200

750

200

150

160

8575

5065

SUS Channnel3×25×50　

tempered glass t15

Ceiling：Plaster board t9.5 Emulsion Painted　　　

Floor Heating:Heating FilmFloor：Wooden Flooring t15Lauan Plywood t15Insulation Board t30

5065

210

135

200

300

150

75

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Here, in this concrete bunker, the deft manipulation of spaces affords its inhabitants long and near views and grand panoramic vistas over the Pacific Ocean

Kitchen Dining room

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issue 12 House O

01 parking 02 closet 03 tatami room 04 kitchen 05 dining room 06 porch 07 entrance 08 living room 09 study room 10 closet 11 bed room 12 bath room

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0502

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Project StatementA weekend house for a couple located on a rocky coast two hours drive from Tokyo. They plan to settle down in this place in the future. The site is a rocky outcrop facing the Pacific Ocean with approaches sloping down to the water.The characteristic of the plan, imagined like the branches of a tree, is a continuous one room. All the required spaces – entrance, living area, dining area, kitchen, bedroom, Japanese-style room, study room and bathroom – are arranged in this continuous one room.The request from the client is for a “house with feeling of ocean nearby”. I thought of creating “various oceans”: panoramic view of the ocean, ocean looking from recesses of a cave, enclosed ocean and place projected above the ocean. Oriented in different directions, you can find various views of the ocean as you walk through the house. The living area, bedroom and bathroom, each have their own unique relationship with the ocean.You could say the house is akin to a walking trail along the coast; you could happen on a panoramic view, sometimes feel the ocean at your back or find the ocean through a small gap. Comfortable spaces are scattered along this trail. Interminable spaces continuing over and over without any clear borders. I wanted the architecture to be primitive, between natural and man-made. Sou Fujimoto

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Yet another of Fujimoto’s plays in the manipulation of composition and space....leading the visitor on a seamless journey uninterrupted by walls or doors, separation created with each crook and crank and fold in the plan

Project House OLocation Chiba, JapanArchitect Sou Fujimoto Architects, TokyoStructural Engineers Jun SatoPhotographer Daichi Ano