schemata's use of voids safeguards this house in nobeoka for any kind of future

japanese architects schemata reveal their latest residential project – a two-part residence once serving as a retail space and a factory. paired with a client brief resulting in an abundance of excess space the studio saw a unique opportunity to safe guard the inhabitants of this residential project for whatever the future may bring.

the project started as part of a special program organized by a japanese magazine BRUTUS, pairing readers who wanted to renovate their houses with several selected architects. matching each reader to his/her favourite architect to design the renovation, schemata architects were paired with a young couple who lived in nobeoka, mizayaki prefecture, japan.

home to a young couple, schemata’s pairing comprised of an existing building, which had served as a residence/factory when the client was a child and an original wood building which started out as a shop. as the business grew, this had expanded with extra purpose-built spaces, both made of steel structures, eventually becoming a building complex composed of three blocks.

 

with the clients renovating the existing state of the property, combining wood and steel structures, the two-story building boasted 230m2 with a total floor area of 440m2 – a fact that had the architects in disbelief. ‘we wondered, ‘is this really a renovation and not a reconstruction?”, leading architect of the firm, jo nagasaka commented.

 

 

after meeting with the clients schemata understood their passion to maintain the history of the building used by their family and employees. as they proceeded with the renovation plan, they also realised the total floor area needed for the client’s life would be as small as 170 m2. this meant that they had a considerable excess floor area.

 

so schemata re-organized the space, locating necessary places while inserting voids here and there; voids that could be kept in expectation of accommodating the client’s future passion. considered as a future investment these voids were an experimental challenge, because they didn’t know exactly what kind of future passion may arise. yet, such voids, created somewhere between the interior and the building envelope, generated a dynamic space that raises expectations for something to happen.

 

credits

title: house in nobeoka
architect: jo nagasaka / schemata architects
project team: ryosuke yamamoto
location: nobeoka-shi, miyazaki-ken, japan
usage: private house
construction: ueda kogyo co., ltd.
number of stories: 2 stories
site area: 254.17㎡
building area: 228.35㎡
total floor area: 439.54㎡
structure: wood and steel
completion: august, 2017
photographer: takumi ota