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    Akio Isshiki Architects marries old and new with Japanese home and restaurant

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    Japanese studio Akio Isshiki Architects has transformed an old wooden building into a warm-toned home and public restaurant named House in Hayashisaki Matsue Beach.

    Located on a coastal street in Akashi in southern Japan, the mixed-use space was built within a 50-year-old building for a local designer and features a curry restaurant as well as residential and working spaces.
    Designed to reflect traditional Japanese dwellings, the home and restaurant are contained within a wooden building that was previously dark and separated.
    House in Hayashisaki Matsue Beach was designed by Akio Isshiki ArchitectsDuring the renovation, Akio Isshiki Architects aimed to pair existing elements with modern features to reflect the mixed-use nature of the project.
    “The house was divided into small rooms, narrow and dark,” studio founder Akio Isshiki told Dezeen.

    “It was very old and damaged, but fortunately the carpenter had done a good job, there were no leaks, and the structure was solid.”
    It is located in AkashiAccessed from the roadside, a series of circular stones form a path that leads through the planted front garden and curves to extend along the front of the building, providing access to the ground-floor restaurant.
    Here, a stepped sheltered porch features external seating and is separated from the interior space by a wide sliding glass door set in a timber frame, which offers views into the garden and can be fully opened to connect the dining space to the outside.
    The structure contains a restaurant and a homeInside, the floor has been coated with dark tiles informed by the history of the area, which was formerly a large tile producer.
    “These tiles were handcrafted one by one by tile craftsmen in Awaji, with the image of lava stone pavements seen in cities in Central and South America superimposed on the texture and edge shape,” said the studio.
    It draws on traditional Japanese homesWooden furnishings, including bespoke D-shaped chairs designed by the studio and created by a local woodworker, are arranged throughout the dining space at the front of the building.
    “To ensure stability even on uneven floors, three legs are used as a base for the chairs, and the legs are made of a thick material so that they do not fit in the joints of the Kawara tiles,” said Isshiki.
    “I aimed for a primitive design with an unknown nationality, with as simple and crude a composition as possible.”

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    Separated from the main space by an earth-toned counter, the kitchen is tucked into one side of the dining room and features walls clad in wooden panels and white tiles, along with a lighting fixture formed from two circles that hangs in the street-facing window.
    A Japanese shoji screen at the end of the dining room is the first of a series of flexible partitions throughout the home that can be pulled out to provide separation between the spaces.
    The upper floor contains private residential space”Conscious of the tropics and nostalgia, we put nets that look like mosquito nets and sudare blinds on the shoji screens,” said the studio. “The graceful plans created by imperfect partitions such as shoji and fusuma are typical of ancient Japanese architecture.”
    “In this house, where cultures, nationalities, times, and various other things are combined, I thought it would be appropriate to have the spaces partially mixed so that they could feel the presence of each other, rather than being permanently partitioned in terms of usage,” it continued.
    Wood was used throughout the interiorBuilt on a raised timber platform, the rest of the ground floor holds private rooms for the client, which are divided by shoji screens, including a traditional Japanese room that opens onto a garden.
    A home office borders the dining space, where a central black ladder leads to the floor above, while a bedroom, bathroom and utility room branch from the other side of the corridor.
    The residential space has views of the seaUpstairs, the studio added an open arrangement of dining and living spaces with warm-toned surfaces including a red wall and dark wooden beams that interact with the home’s original rustic roof structure.
    “The wall on the second floor is a scraped wall mixed with red iron oxide and finished by a plasterer from Awaji,” said Isshiki. “This is an attempt to incorporate the colourful walls of each country into architecture in a Japanese context.”
    The home has an open-plan living arrangementOther Japanese homes recently featured on Dezeen include a Tokyo home spread across two stacked volumes and a concrete home supported by a single column on Japan’s Okinawa Island.
    The photography is by Yosuke Ohtake.

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      Td-Atelier and Endo Shorijo Design transform interior of traditional machiya house in Kyoto

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      Japanese design studios Td-Atelier and Endo Shorijo Design have renovated a century-old machiya townhouse in Kyoto with minimal interiors that intend to honour the home’s existing architecture.

      Called House in Marutamachi, the Japanese house was built over 120 years ago and is arranged across two floors on a long and narrow site.
      House in Marutamachi is a traditional machiya house in KyotoTucked between two other residential properties, the house is an example of the wooden machiya townhouses that were once common in Japan’s historical capital Kyoto but are now at risk of going extinct.
      “Traditional Kyoto townhouses are being destroyed at a pace of 800 houses a year,” Td-Atelier explained.
      “Old buildings don’t match modern life. However, we want to stop the decline of Kyoto townhouses by fusing tradition, design and new life.”

      The kitchen is encased in a white volumeTd-Atelier and Endo Shorijo Design dressed House in Marutamachi’s interior with new components including sleek tiles and geometric furniture alongside materials reused from the original house, as seen in the traditional team room.
      The studios retained the building’s wooden columns and beams but added white volumes to house rooms including the kitchen and study to avoid disturbing the existing architecture with harsh structural materials.
      The tea room was constructed using materials reused from the original buildingThese variously sized cubes were designed to mimic the contrasting heights of buildings in a cityscape.
      “The gaps and omissions created between the volume group and the existing columns, beams, walls and floors create continuity in the space,” Td-Atelier said.

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      Throughout the house, Td-Atelier and Endo Shorijo Design adopted a minimal material and colour palette including a combination of light and dark woods alongside smooth concrete.
      A thin, sculptural light is suspended above the timber breakfast bar on the second floor, where occupants can sit on clusters of subtle-coloured stools.
      Original features were maintained in the gardenOutside, a plant-filled garden features elements from the building’s original architecture such as sandy-hued lanterns and a chōzubachi – a traditional stone water bowl historically used for washing hands before a tea ceremony.
      House in Marutamachi was shortlisted for house interior of the year at the 2022 Dezeen Awards.
      Dezeen recently announced the winners of this year’s interiors categories, who are now competing to win the overall interiors project of the year award.
      The photography is by Matsumura Kohei.

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      Jorge Almazán creates minimal broken-plan interior for House in Honjo

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      Suspended ceilings and unnecessary partition walls were removed in this minimalist revamp of a house in Japan’s Saitama Prefecture, designed by Jorge Almazán Architects.

      House in Honjo was previously divided into rooms and corridors, which made it feel small and cramped.
      Removing walls created a more open ground floorArchitect Jorge Almazán and his team designed a new ground-floor layout that removed as many partition walls as possible, creating a continuous living space that offers a greater feeling of spaciousness.
      The new layout is broken-plan rather than open-plan; the space is loosely divided up into different zones by the few remaining partition walls, and a few custom furniture pieces.
      The remaining partition walls create a broken-plan layoutAs well as creating extra head height, the removal of the suspended ceiling boards reveals the steel structural beams and wooden joists, giving the home a more utilitarian feel.

      House in Honjo is home to a fashion critic who recently relocated from Tokyo for work.
      Although the 163-square-metre property did not meet her requirements, the location was convenient for her job. She asked Almazán to redesign the 97-square-metre ground floor, leaving the rest of the building intact.
      A suspended ceiling was removed to reveal structural beams”Her home had to be spacious and filled with natural light, as well as a place where she could hold family and friend gatherings,” explained Jorge Almazán Architects.
      The new broken-plan living space incorporates an entrance hall, a lounge, a dining space and a kitchen organised around an island.
      Privacy can be created by placing more items on the shelvesInformed by the client’s interest in fashion, Almazán added different material textures to each space. The kitchen features a stainless steel worktop, the dining area centres around a marble table, and the lounge features white leather upholstery.
      “Each element is ‘dressed’ with a distinctive tactile and visual experience,” said the studio.
      A new window was added in the loungeWood features heavily throughout. The flooring is birch wood, while plywood lines the walls and provides furniture, including shelves and sideboards that act as space dividers.
      More or less privacy can be created by adding or removing elements from the shelving that separates the lounge and the dining area from the entrance hall.

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      Flexibility was considered throughout. The lounge furniture can be easily moved to create room for exercise or, in the future, children’s play space, while the dining table is designed to also function as a workspace.
      Underfloor heating ensures that the space will stay comfortable during Saitama’s notoriously cold winters, while the more open layout creates more opportunities for cross ventilation in the warmer summer months.
      A plywood sideboard creates a natural space dividerA new window was installed to increase the volume of natural light in the lounge space, with a window sill that is deep enough to allow space for pot plants, while a skylight was added in the hallway.
      A new toilet and utility room was also created as part of the renovation, which helps to rationalise the layout at the rear of the ground floor.
      Plywood also lines the walls of the renovated living spacesHouse in Honjo “has proved to be especially suited for the new domestic conditions imposed by the pandemic,” noted Jorge Almazán Architects.
      “The comfort of natural light and ventilation, the rich tactility of its surfaces, and the spatial openness and versatility have allowed this renovated house to become an enjoyable interior oasis.”
      Plants can be displayed on the deep window sillsHome renovations are less common in Japan than other countries, as rebuilding is usually the preferred option.
      Japanese real estate firm Goodlife recently set out to change this, with the renovation of a compact apartment in Tokyo. Other recent examples include a minimally furnished flat in Nagoya.
      Photography is by Montse Zamorano.
      Project credits
      Architect: Jorge Almazán ArchitectsDesign team: Jorge Almazán, Javier Celaya, Gaku Inoue, Rumi Okazaki.Contractor (interior and furniture): Shibata Kenchiku Design RoomElectricity: Uchimura DenkiKitchen manufacturer: Kitazawa Kitchen

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      Tree rises up through centre of House in Yoga by Keiji Ashizawa Design

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      A greenery-filled courtyard lies at the heart of this home that Keiji Ashizawa Design has created for a family of five in Tokyo’s Yoga neighbourhood. Located just outside of the bustling, shop-lined streets of Tokyo’s Shibuya ward, House in Yoga is designed to let its inhabitants experience the outdoors in an urban context. The house, […] More

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      Steel and concrete steps cut through facade of Stairway House by Nendo

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      A huge faux staircase interrupts the floor plan of this house in Tokyo, which design studio Nendo has created for three generations of the same family. Stairway House is situated in a quiet residential pocket of Shinjuku, a ward of Tokyo known for its neon-lit buildings, bustling streets and vibrant nightlife scene. The three-storey home […] More