House Uc by Miyahara Architect Office

House Uc by Miyahara Architect Office :

* Project Name: House_Uc
* Client: Private
* Project Type: Single family house
* Principal Designer/s: Teruo Miyahara
* Design Team: Miyahara Architect Office
* Contractor/s: Honma Co.
* Date of commencement of project: March 2004
* Date of completion of project: December 2005
* Location of site: Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan
* Site Area: 60 sqm
* Built-up Area: 90 sqm
* Cost of Construction/Execution: 200000 €

House Uc is a residence designed by Miyahara Architect Office for a couple in their 30s and their daughter. It is located in the quiet residential area of Tokyo standing on a small and narrow site of irregular shape - a result of the recent trend of dividing property into smaller segments each time it is sold and bought due to inheritance issues and market availability.

The site measures approximately 60 sqm in size: approximately 12 meters deep, 6 meters across where it faces the north road, and 2.7 meters across at the deepest end. The design for House Uc therefore needed to focus on the ideal form of an urban detached house within the constraints of the site itself as well as laws and regulations.



















The client felt that a residence was a form of self-exposure to the outer world. In order to live up to his expectations, House Uc was designed to imply the essence of the house within the urban context by bringing out the characteristics of the finishing material that was chosen together with the client.






















The concrete exterior walls were coated with lean-mix acrylic paint, resulting in a black mottled effect according to the difference in the degree of water absorption and smoothness of the surface. The zinc-coated steel sashes on the east side were dipped in phosphate to strengthen the zinc layer, and the difference in the amount of zinc coating on the sashes projected a black patchy effect. The mottled exterior walls and patterned sashes are the result of chance (nature) and display a certain beauty, in a sense similar to human beings - people are attractive, pockmarks and all.



Credits
:: Text: Teruo Miyahara
:: Photographs: Mitsumasa Fujitsuka