Japanese Home with a Sun Loved Roof

April Kennedy April Kennedy
岡崎宇頭の家, 株式会社タバタ設計 株式会社タバタ設計 Asian style houses
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It's a rare occasion when a contemporary home offers a facade so striking, that it's unlike anything you have seen before. Here at homify, we think this unique contemporary home in Okazaki, Japan does just that.

Before we get into the specifics of just why we love this two storey contemporary home , here are a few key facts. The home is a new construction, it's extremely environmentally efficient and it occupies a mere, 45 square meters of floor space. The home, which was designed by Tabata Design, was conceived as a family meeting place and offers Japanese design features and wooden finishes throughout. But it's really the unusual roof feature that we find most interesting.

So let's get started on a photo tour of this fabulous home.

Striking façade

This is a home to certainly stop and admire. The cladding on the roof and panels on the sides of the home are indistinguishable from each other. They blend into one seamless seal of black tile and cladding. This bold choice clearly emphasises the unusual shape of the sloping roof.

If that wasn't enough to admire, here we can also see how the solar panels have been integrated. So often solar panels are treated as an unfortunate addition to a rooftop. But here, we can see how the large solar panels, skylights and an opening in the roof have been displayed as an integral, if decorative part of the roof design.

Connection area for family

On entering the front door, we come to a wide hallway with a kitchen, a living area with a large built in bookcase and a staircase to the upper level. Although the finishes are all in wood, there are at least three different types of wood used here. The support beams are knotted and reflect the Japanese tradition of accepting the imperfection of natural finishes.

Although the room appears as an open plan living space here, there is the option of sliding doors for privacy.

Open plan options

The architect said he conceived this home as a meeting place for family. Even with the sliding glass doors to the kitchen closed, we can see how the transparent glass maintains a visual connection to the rest of the home. The glass doors also allow the abundance of sunlight streaming down the hallway to enter the room. A very spare amount of recessed lights provide additional light.

Although the pale wooden floors and finishing offer a primarily earthy tone, a striking red kitchen bench adds a contemporary touch to the space.

Variety of wood finishes

From this angle we can see the wooden staircase leading to the upstairs area. We also have a clear view of the front door and it's now apparent just how effective the exterior front wooden edifice is in providing privacy.

A variety of square wooden panels, long timber beams and smaller pieces of timber have been used to create a unified, if varied wooden interior.  A light, minimalist ambience is created with the use of pale wood, glass panels and the slim design of the bannister and wooden window frames.

Unusual edifice

Here we have a detailed view of the unusual wooden edifice at the front of the home. This edifice has several purposes. As mentioned earlier, it offers some degree of privacy when the front door is open. There were issues with strong winds affecting the front of the property, and this would certainly mitigate this issue. But the really interesting aspect of this feature is the fact that it's an inverted trapezoid. To see why, we'll move onto our final photo of the home.

Warm evening facade

Here we have a direct frontal view of the house at dusk with the porch-lights creating golden pools of warm light. Incidentally, the wooden facade almost appears as a single story home from this angle.

But what we're really interested in is the shape of the roof here. It slopes down create a trapezoidal shape. It's the flip image of the smaller wooden edifice below. One counterbalances the other.

If you are interested in Japanese homes, you would love this Ideabook A Fusion of Modernity and Tradition in Japan.

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