Otsubo Design, Roovice: Scaled Back House

A 43-year-old wooden house has been renovated based on the design that was jointly developed with the owner.

The owner has two family members and moved in to this house 4 years ago. The majority of the house at the back was renovated when they moved in, except for the entrance, which had a waiting lobby for editors to wait for the previous owner, who happened to be a novelist.

The waiting lobby took a decent amount of space despite the fact that it was not used in full. The owners wanted to use that space for parking, so we decided to scale down the house. The greater part of the house remained the same even after the renovation, so this time we preserved the existing structure and linked the new façade to the existing building. The outer wall of the façade is set up to trace the cross section of the house. 

It was decided that mortar would go well with the old structure and simple design, which will create a sense of warmth and heritage.  The new gable board color is matched with the existing structure to achieve a sense of continuity. “Reducing could mean more, as scaling back does not mean just reducing floor space. In our opinion it is a way to achieve a comfortable life for the family who live in this house today. It could be mean also to achieve energy efficiency and to reduce maintenance cost” affirm Masayoshi Otsubo and Fumie Otsubo from Otsubo Design.

Scaled Back House
Kamakura City, Kanagawa
Design: Masayoshi Otsubo, Fumie Otsubo (Otsubo Design), Nov Fukui (Roovice inc.)
Type: Renovated house
Structure: Wooded two-story house
Construction: Roovice inc.
Construction in charge: Nov Fukui, Motomizu Kuroda, Ryota Arai (Roovice inc.)
Total floor area (before renovation): 133.64 sqm
Total floor area (after renovation): 121.34 sqm
Planned area: reduced area 12.3 sqm, interior 27.5 sqm
Completion: 2013