DOG completes 8.5 house in japan with steep sloping roof and diagonal exhibition wall

tokyo-based architecture studio DOG has built 8.5 house, a small, atelier-style dwelling for a painter and his family in the town of ninomiya, japan. the residence is topped with a steep sloping roof that doubles as a wall and gives the building a sculptural exterior form, while its interior is defined by a diagonal exhibition wall that allows the painter’s work to be exhibited at maximum length. together, the two elements cross to create a three-dimensional figure of ‘wide / narrow’ or ‘high / low’ spaces within the house.

images by satoshi takae + shinkenchiku

DOG has built the 87.23 sqm house along ninomiya’s tokaido road, where the great japanese ukiyo-e artist hiroshige used to walk and draw. home to three generations – the painter, his wife, child, and mother – the residence is defined by an exhibition wall that separates the living zone from the atelier. this wall offers the painter the chance to exhibit his work to the city by taking up the maximum length on the diagonal dimension of the site. there, a tall, glass entrance allows passersby to glimpse into the atelier.

‘the theme is to open an atelier in ninomiya-cho, located between oiso (8th post town) and odawara (9th post town), and to have the owner spin the fifty-three stations of the tokaido,’ explains the japanese architecture office, paying tribute to hiroshige’s series of ukiyo-e woodcut prints, the fifty-three stations of the tokaido.

the house’s steep sloping roof doubles as a wall on the northern side of the site, while it creates an unusual sculptural form within the urban landscape that offers a source of imagination for the painter and a tasteful home for the family. the roof and the diagonal exhibition wall cross to create a three-dimensional figure that alternates between wide and narrow, high and low, resulting in a play in scale within the residence.