It is a wooden family dwelling located in the rural town of Nishinakayama-cho, It sits not far from Toyota City in Aichi prefecture, central Japan. Strip House is a textbook prototype of Kochi’s experimental XYZ concept that connects each space three-dimensionally using the XYZ grid. The interior of this house comes as a wooden jigsaw puzzle with irregular exposed spaces and unfamiliar angles.
Inspiration
With its unique concept, this house has more light, more room, and more fun. Humans and space can co-exist with a sense of freedom. The inspiration for the grid concept comes from while watching his daughter playing in the local park, swinging her way through a jungle gym climbing frame. This gym is similar in concept to an XYZ grid. He is also inspired by the timber frames of wooden houses. The goal is to create a balance inside the house.
Design
A little clue of the structural complexities is offered by the simple facade of concrete panels. At the entrance on the slopping off shoes, the interior of the house comes as a wooden jigsaw puzzle with unique structure, unfamiliar angles, and seemingly irregular, exposed spaces. There are also 24 key vertical and horizontal ‘strips’ of larch plywood of various lengths. These ‘strips’ are interconnected using mainly hidden internal connectors, stretching from floor to ceiling and outer wall to outer wall.
Details
The ultimate goal of this project is to create a ‘pleasant’ life for its residents with a strong sense of natural warmth, organic patterns, and grains of juxtaposed pieces of wood. Inside, the quality of light is also striking with tall vertical panels of windows and a crucial skylight enables sunlight to filter freely throughout the spatial voids.
Strip House Gallery
Photographer: Kazuyasu Kochi