Located in Shibuya, Tokyo, Yoyogi House is a 2008 project of a small home designed by Frontoffice Tokyo. With 80 m2 in size, this house is owned by a middle-aged couple who want to have a small house to accommodate their desire for a comfortable personal space. This house is grown over time and it becomes a rich green space in the middle of a shared urban landscape.
Concept
By seeing the existing urban landscape as something that is legitimate, the architect makes it as something worth looking at and worth interacting with in its own right. The city is viewed as a landscape and valued as a mountain view or an orchard.
Design
This house is built around a sleeping green landscape. connected to the street and open to the surrounding city. The garden of this house is not considered as an entirely private thing, but instead, it is offered as a new green element in a shared urban landscape.
Rooms
The clients want to have a comfortable small house that can accommodate a personal space’s desire, especially to pursue their own hobbies with a small painting area and work-space for the wife. They also want to have an access to outdoor space that can be used in daily life.
The garden allows the clients to have a fun time in gardening by filling it with food and plants. As time goes by, this small house grows awesomely and becomes a rich green space. This green space offers a larger impact than its small footprint that suggested.
Yoyogi House Gallery
Photography: Frontoffice Tokyo