Imaise House - A high earthquake resistance residential in Japan

Japan is constantly affected by seismic and volcanic activity thanks to its location in the Circum-Pacific Mobile Belt. Despite covering just 0.25 percent of the earth's land area, Japan experiences 18.5% of the world's earthquakes. Geographically and physically, how the Japanese live and how they design safe living environments. For one of his clients, Tatsuya Kawamoto + Associates designed a high earthquake resistance residential building, which won the "New Black" Award in 2021.

Japan is constantly affected by seismic and volcanic activity thanks to its location in the Circum-Pacific Mobile Belt. Despite covering just 0.25 percent of the earth's land area, Japan experiences 18.5% of the world's earthquakes. Geographically and physically, how the Japanese live and how they design safe living environments. For one of his clients, Tatsuya Kawamoto + Associates designed a high earthquake resistance residential building, which won the "New Black" Award in 2021.

Generally, the main areas of a building need to be on the second floor since the structural walls needed on the first floor are reduced. The building should have "high earthquake resistance" as well as "open space."

By taking into consideration the surrounding environment of a "private road," the front road is a private property, and planning a space in which the inside and the outside are seamless, the designer aims to achieve maximum spatial volume within the given constraints.

The building has a simple and clear configuration with only an 8.0m-wide "frame" that provides both earthquake resistance and a large opening.

There was a unique community created around this "private road", which branched off the main road.

With the incorporation of local, unique characteristics that are different from each road into the living space, the designer thought it would be possible to contribute to regional development by establishing a favorable climate as a residential area for communities that could be made as a by-product of local industries.

A gate frame, in addition to its function as an earthquake-resistant element, also acts as a ruler that gives rhythm to the space by arranging at regular intervals and measuring the distance from the city, and by inserting rails into each frame, it can be private as desired.

By extending the eaves across the front road side and creating a continuous external space, it is anticipated that the resident will gradually spread out under the roof while making the most of the small parcel.

Mr. Kawamoto said: "Due to the surrounding environment, which was moderately protected by chance, we were able to live in the nearby land and use the road as a living space."

Construction methods like this have taken root in this area. By mixing the resident's demand, the structure designed to solve the problem, and these, it is made.Imaise House

Architectural Overview

Location : Ichinomiya Aichi Japan

Completion : November 2020

Principal use : House

Structure : Timber structure

Site area : 168.38㎡ 

Building area : 99.12㎡

Designer Profile

Tatsuya Kawamoto

1990 Born in Aichi,Japan

2012 ~ worked at Takeshi Hosaka Architects

2013 ~ worked at Hiroyuki Shinozaki Architects

2018 ~ established Tatsuya Kawamoto + Associates

AWARDS

2011 2nd prize of Japan institute of architects tokai branch architectural design competition award 28th

2012 2nd prize of Graduation design review

2013 3rd prize of Japan institute of architects tokai branch architectural design competition award 30th

2015 Fine work of Nisshin kogyo architectural design competition 2015

2016 2nd prize of Circos international architecture competition 2016

2017 Honorable mentions of Shinkenchiku residential design 2017

2017 4th prize of CLT idea contest 2017 Awards

2011 2nd prize of Japan institute of architects tokai branch architectural design competition award 28th

2012 2nd prize of Graduation design review

2013 3rd prize of Japan institute of architects tokai branch architectural design competition award 30th

2015 Fine work of Nisshin kogyo architectural design competition 2015

2016 2nd prize of Circos international architecture competition

2017 Honorable mentions of Shinkenchiku residential design 2017

2017 4th prize of CLT idea contest 2017

For more information about Tatsuya Kawamoto + Associates, please visit:

http://tatsuyakawamoto.com/


*The New Black is a new award from www.skydesignawards.com designed to discover and recognise young architects and designers, or small projects such as pop-up, residential, or retail shops project sizes up to 50m2  (540 ft²).

*The New Black entrants must be either under 38 years of age OR the project submitted must be less than 50m2  (with no age limitation).

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