See to Eat | japan through architecture and food

three-year-long design process led up to this realization of this 85 square-meter transparent conceptual house, designed by Sou Fujimoto. A home that might as well be a physical representation of the current social media platforms; a showcase of our lives with little to no privacy. The experimental result of the desire of a young couple that it is designed for, namely, the aspiration to explore and freely wandering around an open space.

Individual floor plates at different heights and varying dimensions allow for a nomadic way of living by creating a setting for a range of activities that can take place on different floor levels. Ranging in size, each floor slab is linked by a variety of stairs and ladders, including fixed and movable steps. The floor slabs have a furniture-like scale allowing them to serve many types of functions such as; circulation, seating, table or physical barrier. While the slabs itself resembles tree leaves that filters light down into the house.

“The life lived and the moments experienced in this space is a contemporary adaptation of the richness once experienced by the ancient predecessors from the time when they inhabited trees.” - Sou Fujimoto

The loosely defined program and the individual floor plates create a house that can act as both a large single room as well as a collection of spaces. Allowing the overall configuration to adapt to the owners where they can choose to be close, or want to accommodate a group of guests by distributing people across the house.

The owners ([NA]mba-san) do sporadically allow some guests (strangers) to enter their house and let on any question they might have. However, these visits are mostly pre-arranged by local universities. If you do happen to see a group going in, do not hesitate to ask if you are allowed to join in, as we heard several success stories over the last few years.