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Aray Architecture: Shirasu

A skillful use fo Shirasu, a local volcanic rock, allowed Aray architects to build an energetically efficient house with memories of the region's morphology.

The client asked for a house environmentally friendly in a region, South Kyushu, where the climate is hot and humid.

This project responds to the client’s desire using wind as fresh breeze and by saving rain water, that is then used for gardening and a particular use of the local volcanic rock Shirasu. The site is a residential quarter that extends on a Shirasu plateau near the Kagoshima City downtown.

Aray Architects, Shirasu, Kagoshima, Japan

The basic idea for the project has been the use of the native Shirasu blocks as the construction material to allow the entire building to be eco-friendly.

Shirasu has several positive qualities: is fireproof, light, has good humidity conditioning and thermal storage. Therefore is used in the area in monotonous blocks: we tried a diverse use of Shirasu both in the shape of blocks and in the technology for producing the blocks.

To secure material strength, the outside wall block are made mixing Shirasu material. The inlaid blocks are mixed up with the raw ore of Shirasu to improve the adsorption and desorption of moisture to the inner wall block. At the same time, the character of this Shirasu appears as an expression of the memory accumulated into the block. The house, where all the blocks have been piled up on either side of a central air cavity, becomes a space "wrapped in the soil" that reminds the caves in Shirasu.

Shirasu, Kagoshima, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan
Client: private
Architect: ARAY Architecture
Architect in charge: Asei Suzuki
Structural design: tmsd & takashi manda structural design
Contractor: tagzhaus
Site Area: 228.9 sqm
Building Area: 88 sqm
Floor Area: 143.9 sqm
Completion: 2013 　