The young couple with their three children asked Suppose Design Office to create the unique dwelling design, in which the open public part would preserve privacy. The house was built in 260m2 site area, and the exterior was inspired by earliest house in Japanese Architecture called “tateana jukyo” in Yayoi era (200 B.C – 250 A.D). The house is very unique and totally different than their neighbor house. For more detail about this house you can read the description from the architects below, and you see the house floor-plan here.

The site which was formerly an open field was excavated and the house was sunk a meter into the ground. The soil from the excavations was used to create a protective barrier around the perimeter of the site, and acted as the organic base of the house. The barrier formed is both visual and physical and was planted to create a lush landscape.

The sunken level of the house is communal; the perimeter is constructed by exposed glossy concrete. The sunken level is open plan and consists of the living, kitchen and dining areas. Although it is a meter below ground level it has a lot of natural light as Tanjiri placed ribbon windows running on all four sides. Four inclined black steel V plates were placed at each corner of the ground floor, to support the construction and the other two levels of the pit dwelling. A timber staircase without handrails leads to the first floor where the master bedroom and bath is found; however, it also neatly conceals a washroom located on the ground floor. The master bedroom enjoys a terrace, which is cut into the surface of the pyramid-like construction thus allowing natural light into the master bedroom. A transitional sentiment of calmness and anticipation reveals the perplexed entry into the cone shaped construction through the connection of a minimal steel staircase, artistic and creative, as is usually the case in Japanese houses, where the disorientation in design that the handrail creates is omitted.

source:yatzer