FOREST BATH
Kyoko Ikuta Architecture Laboratory
ARCHITECTS
Kyoko Ikuta Architecture Laboratory: Kyoko Ikuta, Katsuyuki Ozeki - Ozeki Architects & Associates
PHOTOGRAPHS
Tomohiro Sakashita
AREA
590 m²
YEAR
2010
LOCATION
Japan
CATEGORY
Bath House
Text description provided by architect.
This is a summer house situated in the forest. In this house, by "digging a triangle plane into a house figure", the view extending obliquely upward was gained. The request of the clients who are an old couple was "wanting the space in which we can spend free time without doing anything."
They wanted a summer house in which they could expose their bodies into the woods as they want, look at the trees and sunbeams shining through the branches, and spend time in the house rather than planning to do something special.
Since the site is comparatively flat, a specific view does not open, like hills, but the big Japanese larch which has grown over ten meter is beautiful.
Because the space between the neighbor cottages was not wide, the exchange of direct views was to be avoided, and it meant adopting nature as much as possible.
Branches of the larch start from six meter from the ground. Because the views of the branches cannot be caught by adopting horizontal openings, we considered catching it by the opening in a slant direction.
Wooden shade is reflected in the center room dug by the triangle from a high position, and it changes every moment as time goes by. A natural expression is translated and expressed in forms, such as the shade of a tree and light, on a white canvas.
Moreover, a sense of distance with trees is adjusted depending on how to place yourself, and it provides a spatial experience filtered with depth.
Room for oneself will be found with various expressions of the environment by the season, sunlight, time of the day, etc.
On the other hand, the rooms of both wings are contrastively darker than the center room, and they are illuminated by the wavering light coming from the center room. Through the low eaves, the view enters the space which leads to the bottom grass of the woods.
