UID architects: Pit house

Japanese architecture studio UID architects has recently completed a single family house in the Okayama Prefecture, near the Seto Inland Sea, Japan. Located on a terraced mountain hill that has been transformed into a residential area, the Pit house is home to a family of three.

The architects sought to open the views towards the north of the site, while simultaneously implementing the house's ground level one metre higher than the neighbouring road level. "It is as if the site's natural environment and the architecture coexisted at the same time," states UID's Keisuke Maeda. "The architecture has become a part of the whole landscape of undivided environment, not simply thinking about connection to the surroundings from the cut off openings in walls."

"We came up with a living form that accepts the outside environment," continues te architect, "such as the surface of the terraced land, surrounding neighbouring houses' fences and walls, residences that sit along the slope and far beyond mountains."

The volume's key principle hinges on an interior conceived as the extension of the outside space, with six types of floor levels, including a round floor, with a concrete cylinder core at the centre. Multiple branch-like columns supporting a series of floating boxes produce diverse spaces.

In the Pit House, environment and architecture are intertwined by connecting surfaces, which allow the territory to become undefined and fluid.

UID architects, Pit House
Architects: UID architects (Keisuke Maeda)
Consultants: Konishi Structural Engineers (Yasutaka Konishi), Takeshi Kaneko,Toshiya Ogino Environment Design Office (Toshiya Ogino)
Contractors: Nakamura Costruzione Co.Ltd.-Hiromi Nakamura, Yasunobu Hida, Keizou Yoshioka, Kazuhiko Kiminami
Structural system: steel frame
Exterior Materials: cedarwood
Interior Materials: MDF, concrete, cherrywood pavement
Site area: 232,12 square metres
Built area: 115,32 square metres
Completion: October 2011