House with skip terrace

The project site is a new subdivision located on the outskirts of Niigata City. In Japanese residential areas, houses of similar size are built on evenly divided plots of land. In many homes, residents keep their curtains closed to prevent crime and ensure privacy. Because the existing homes use new building materials, they have a monotonous, uniform streetscape. We wanted to change this uniform lifestyle and streetscape. The layout of this house is designed to create a comfortable distance from the street, achieving a design that strikes a contradictory balance between privacy and openness. To achieve this, we created an outdoor terrace in the center of the building. This terrace is 80cm higher than the interior floor and has been named the "skip terrace." The design is just the right height, so the interior is not visible from the road or people passing by. The skip terrace provides privacy from the outside, giving the interior space a sense of security. From inside, all you can see are the trees lining the street and the sky. Residents can feel the presence of nature even when indoors. In new residential areas, new building materials are often used for exterior walls, resulting in uniform, unchanging streetscapes. This house makes use of many domestic materials and was built using traditional wooden construction methods. Older Japanese houses often used wood for their exterior walls. The exterior walls of this house are painted silver-gray to give the appearance of aging. Unlike new building materials, wooden exterior walls develop more patina over time, improving their texture. The large openings created by the skip terrace not only filter sunlight but also add a sense of openness and variety to the streetscape. The design is contemporary, while keeping in mind the look of old Japanese towns. This wooden house blends in with the town and changes the uniform streetscape.