Tusunomiya House is located in a residential area of Tochigi, Japan. The home was designed to showcase a modern reinterpretation of a traditional Japanese nure’en, which is a Japanese style veranda outside a room. The new, modern version of the nure’en is a large outdoor space completely contained underneath the A-Frame roofline of Tusunomiya House, meaning the roof covers both the indoor and the outdoor nure-en area.
Suppose Design Office designed the indoor/outdoor zones beneath the roofline to be somewhat ambiguous, meaning the definition between the two areas is blurred and not obvious from the street.
Adding to a by passers confusion are the two skylights positioned just above the nure-en.
Fro the side of the house the indoor/outdoor areas are clearly visible through the second storey window via the structural support that slices through the window view.
The upstairs nure-en offers a view to the surrounding area through the roof cut out.
The upper nure-en has a pony wall that the homeowner can look over to see the nure-en below.
The ground level nure-en has a floor of pebbles and a knotty pine underside to the gable that is pierced by two support beams, creating drama within a minimalist setting.
The exterior wall between the interior social zone and the exterior nure-en is covered with a series of sliding and stacking glass doors with wood frames, further blurring the lines between what is inside and what is not.
The A-frame gable has cut outs in it to allow a newly planted tree to continue growing through the gable and to offer views to the street beyond.
From inside the house the portions of the home that are part of the A-frame roofline are covered in knotty pine, as is the floor, while the rest of the walls are a pure white.
The same distribution of materials is used on the second level creating a feeling of warmth to the otherwise minimalist decor.
Suppose Design Office.
Photography by Toshiyuki Yano.
Using simplicity of design to create a complex result is something Japanese architects excel at, and Suppose Design Office has really delivered on this principle. The concept of material clarity and sculptural form is something that many western architects have also embraced while citing Japanese architecture as their influence – this concrete box house is one good example.
