An Elegant Split-Level Home with Lots of Beautiful, Natural Wood in Shiga Prefecture

Ishibe House by ALTS DESIGN OFFICE

“The hope of this client is to live in a house just like a renovated warehouse. The type of houses is diversified into various kinds, and such a house is prevalent on the ground of financial terms. However, there’re problems as regarding heat insulation capacity and construction to convert a warehouse into a house. As a result, it costs the same amount as new construction.

Therefore, we built a new house like a renovated warehouse pursuing diversified and productive open spaces. The ground sits between old residential area and new land for sale in lots. And it’s an area enclosed by residential roads. We made a building like an existing warehouse at first, and designed it carefully as if the client renovated it. We made a white-cube inside the building and put rooms needed privacy inside the cube.

In doing so, we valued the connection of the inside and the outside. We made a split level house, and dare to make non-exclusive rooms on floor planning. We created open spaces so that the client can arrange them to suit the lifestyle. We could take account the durability and the environmental burden because of new construction.

In addition to that, we could add temporal complexity as if it were an existing building. Then we hope that the client lives a spiritually affluent life in this house adding depth to it.”

Photos courtesy of ALTS DESIGN OFFICE