Visualizacion Digital -- Casa en Wakabadai de Satoshi Okada

House in Wakabadai

As an architect and historian as well, I believe that: “one can explain something good with reason but cannot explain beauty with reason; one can create something good with reason but cannot create beauty with reason; and beauty can create reason but reason cannot create beauty

Is a small residence with a building area of less than 66 sqm. The client is a young couple in their mid-thirties. Their main request was to have “a house that is attractive and cool.” When I asked them of some specific imageries, they would simply answer “its hard to put into words so we leave it up to you.”

Certain things are just so attractive that verbal expression is suspended and left powerless. Whenever people encounter such things, the body automatically responds earlier than making logic for words. As a matter of fact, I myself have been captured by the curious power of such attraction, ever since my involvement in the design of ”villa man-bow” in 1997. In my quest for architecture as an existence that takes the teeth out of logic, I named the nature of this mysterious attraction “intensity of architecture.” And this house is one attempt in such practice.

Wakabadai is the last of the development areas in Tama New Town. It is situated on the periphery of a countryside in its way to urbanization. The site is located at the end of a blind alley, 4-meter-wide dogleg private road, connected to the main street. It is bordered by a river on its south side, which offers a pleasant view over the hills of rich greens on the other side. However, the plot has attracted no buyers and been abandoned for a long time for its reputation for the weak ground due to its proximity to the river and for its inconvenient location set far back from the main street. Adjacent on the west is a two-storied private house inhabited by an old couple; on the north a two-storied apartment building of 8 households; and on the east a small crop field.

The project started out with considering the movements of automobiles within the site. Two cars had to be parked under a roof by tucking the car from the font and switching back inside the site, as it was one absolute requirement presented by the client who loves cars. Most of the ground area of 116 sqm was occupied by the cars. The small remaining area became the core, housing the entrance, staircase, and storage. This is how the large pilotis of this small house came about.

LOCATION: Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Pref.

FUNCTION: residence
SIZE: 119.15 sqm.
STRUCTURE: Wooden construction
COMPLETION: 2006

ARQUITECT: Satoshi Okada
PROJECT TEAM: Isao Kato, Shunichi Kasajima
STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Hirokazu Toki
GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Tsukasa kenchiku co.