Hikari Tsuzuraori

The client, who lives in Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, valued spending time with his family and his hobby of surfing on his few days off. He often visited Kamakura for surfing and inevitably came to want a vacation home. It's not an area where land is often sold, but after a long wait, we finally found a plot of land. When I first stood on the site, I was expecting the "sea", "nature", "scenery", etc. characteristic of Kamakura, but it turned out to be a disappointment. It was, on the contrary, something straight out of an ancient city, with a thin road in the front, and the distance from the neighbouring houses was very narrow. The biggest challenge was how to bring "light" into this dim vacant lot.

It is very close to the Great Buddha and Hase Temple in Kamakura. There is a constant influx of people during the daytime and on weekends, and after the evening, it is enveloped in silence, with not a soul in sight. On the lower floor, where almost no light reaches, we created a Japanese space that makes the most of the gloom, a meditative space where one can escape from the hustle and bustle of the city. The upper floor is designed to be a space of "movement", a place for a happy family and that allows you to feel the ever-changing nature of time. The four cores are staggered and the roof slope is alternately folded to create an aperture at the top of the building that allows active sunlight to flow through during the day, and a silent starry view at night.