平和町の家

A renovation project of a 30-year-old detached house on high ground in Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan
The house is located a short distance from the city center but features views over the city of Hakata. The existing building consisted of a living room, dining room, kitchen, pantry and kitchen entrance space, divided into smaller rooms. The idea was to update the layout to be spacious and open for the new occupants, a couple. We removed the existing partition walls to create a single space in the shape of the letter “L” with a pantry in the center of the room. The connected spaces can be partitioned by existing lattice fittings that have been re-used. We widened the openings on the north side that have a view of the city landscape, while on the opposite east garden side, we adjusted them to be smaller. By adjusting these openings, privacy from the neighboring land is ensured, and, at the same time, the landscape is cut off and the line of sight controlled.
The aim was to retain as much of the good qualities of the existing building as possible while carefully layering old and new elements like a patchwork to create a home that is in tune with modern life.