George Dasic Architects designed the ’3645 Minami Hara’ in Nagano, Japan.
Description from the architects:
The site is located in the wooded area of Karuizawa resort town 150km away from Tokyo. It is part of the development consisting of 5 villas, each designed by different architect. The mountainous area has cool climate in summer and cold sharp winters. There is lots of rain in the summer but winters tend to be dry without much snowfall. Humidity and condensation are important factors.
Our design concept is based on the following principles:
(1)Response to the Site and the Surrounding Nature. House is build on the top of the hill with each room taking advantage of the best views and orientation.
(2)Sculptural, Geometrical Forms. Intention was to design a “sculptural object” which will stands as a counter balance against the backdrop of natural green forest and blue sky.
(3)Space Flexibility and Fluidity / Parametric Layout. The overall space is designed as a fully fluid environment allowing for a sense of openness, lightness and easy movement.
(4)Transparency. It would make the building extremely transparent “merging” it with the surrounding forest, while the special site positioning would preserve sense of privacy from the other four buildings within the development.
(5)Building Methods and Tools . The main material used to clad both interior and exterior of the building is cheep and readily available Shinagohan panels that are usually used as an insulation material.
(6)Sustainability and Environment – natural sunlight intake. Karuizawa planning law, amended in 2007 called for every new building to follow set of “aesthetic” rules including sloped roof with eaves. we decided to use it as a vehicle to create naturally cooled, aired and heated environment with full intake of natural light.
(7)Sustainability and Environment-air exchange. Second role of the shape and positions of the roofs is to allow for the natural air exchange and cooling in the summer.
(8)Barrier-free Access to every room and space. From the very beginning we decided to designed house, which will have only one level.
(9)Dancing rain windows. The plan and the roof configuration positions one of the main windows on each side as a direct “slide” of the roof sloped plane.
| Firms | George Dasic Architects |
| Location | Nagano, Japan |
| Project Architect | George Dasic, Yushi Kobayashi, Yuki Miyoshi Nikitaki, Toru Usui, Tamaki Suzuki |
| Area | site: 1953.22 m2 / building: 240.30 m2 / floor: 196.74 m2 |
| Photograph | Hiroyasu Sakaguchi, Arrow Resort Corporation |
