House in Kanazawa

About

The site is located in a residential area in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the Hokuriku region, which has the most rainy days of any region in Japan. The project follows the traditional local architecture, aiming to create a house where people can live in contact with light, wind, and natural environmental sounds while staying indoors, trying to harmonize people’s lives with the elements of the environment, both positive and negative. In the plan, the ‘doma,’ which is a place for interaction with guests in traditional Hokuriku architecture, is reimagined as an indoor garden with a large roof that captures sunlight, allowing for open living even in bad weather and cold winters. The direct light is adjusted for each season, cool in summer and warm in winter, achieving a high level of energy efficiency. As in traditional architecture, the interior and exterior are separated by different layers, which can be adjusted depending on the weather, to make the sound of wind and rain and the rumbling of thunder seem farther away than the visual distance, allowing the users to enjoy the beautiful scenery of movement while sheltering from the wind and rain.

Sources

• Arquitectura Viva