Hiroyuki Shinozaki: House H

Japanese architecture studio Hiroyuki Shinozaki Architects has designed a single family house for a couple and their child, in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. The house draws on the 1960s foundation of a previously existing building which was built when the area was taking off as a residential neighbourhood in the outskirts of Tokyo.

"I seemed to have been asked to build a house as a new symbol in this place by a young family with the hope of the future," states Hiroyuki Shinozaki. "I placed a big roof in the site, and arranged the eight Y-shaped wooden frames in it."

Each space features second floors and loft floors. Y-shaped frames run through the house, evoking an attic space, and from these hang six floorboards at different levels, loosely dividing the space, allowing residents to simultaneously be aware of the entire house.

Shinozaki designed the structure of the house to become part of the residents' daily life and activities, who can interact with the Y-shaped frames by hanging pictures and figures, or marking their child's height on them. "They will leave the trail of their life on the house," states Shinozaki, "like a well thumbed book."

Hiroyuki Shinozaki Architects: House T
Architects: Hiroyuki Shinozaki Architects
Team: Team/ Hiroyuki Shinozaki, Sota Matsuura, Tatsumi Terado Structural Studio
Client: private
Site area: 161,82 square metres
Total built area: 115,41 square metres
Completion: December 2012
Structure: Wood
Maximum height: 7,96 metres
Structural engineering: Tatsumi Terado Structural Studio
Contractor: Hirohashi Komuten Lo.,Ltd.