The House in Marugame is a residential project in Marugame City, Kagawa Prefecture. The project is planned for a couple, their three daughters, and two dogs.
The client requested a home that is not excessively large, with the anticipation that the daughters would become independent in the near future. With this in mind, the living room and kitchen are centrally planned, with few barriers.
Prior to the design process, the mother expressed her wish for the shortest, simplest lines of flow for her household chores, and spatial relationships which facilitate communication.
The father asked for the bedroom to be close to the living room, so that if he felt extreme fatigue, he would have ease of access to both rooms.
We observed a sense of warmth and happiness in the family.
We aimed to envelop that warmth and happiness in a charming, compact single volume.
The living room, dining room, and kitchen are centralized on the first floor, among bedrooms and bathrooms, with minimized distances between each programmatic function.
The daughter’s rooms on the second floor face the center, linked to the first floor via open vertical space.
The open ceiling allows communication between residents occupying the first floor and second floor.
While the project might even appear to be a single-story house, when viewed from afar, the house responds to its context and natural environment, harmonizing with the landscape and mountains.
Photography: sasanokurasha/Yohei Sasakura
