IT IS A GARDEN by Hiroi Ariyama & Megumi Matsubara

IT IS A GARDEN

Hiroi Ariyama & Megumi Matsubara of the architectural firm ASSISTANT are pleased to announce the completion of a house IT IS A GARDEN, in the forest of Karuizawa, Nagano, Japan.

IT IS A GARDEN
Photo © ASSISTANT

IT IS A GARDEN stands in the forest of Karuizawa, surrounding and surrounded by the trees and plants of the forest. The house was designed as a guest house containing a private art gallery for the owner’s collection.

IT IS A GARDEN
Photo © ASSISTANT

Its shape being flat and square, the one-story house has a floor plan entirely defined by five courtyards alone. All facades of the building are made of concrete walls and black glass, clearly dividing its interior space from the external environment.

IT IS A GARDEN
Photo © Daici Ano

The house opens its reinforced concrete roof to the sky in order to create five courtyards. The exterior roofs tilt inwards only vertically inviting light as well as shadows and reflections of the surrounding nature.

IT IS A GARDEN
Photo © Daici Ano

The interior roofs and floor levels consequently create rhythmical geometry to support the simplicity of the exterior. All rooms are designed to face the courtyards each of which is distinct in character designed to receive light at different times of the day.

IT IS A GARDEN
Photo © Daici Ano

The sun rises and sets. The moon waxes and wanes. This unbroken rhythm of light, to which we submit the entire architecture, defines this house. In the design of IT IS A GARDEN, the concept of vertical interplay of the sun through the courtyards crosses with the horizontal connection to the Japanese natural sceneries.

IT IS A GARDEN
Photo © Daici Ano

The architecture’s volume is designed to receive those elements in all dimensions; the slants of light at ever-changing angles, the shadow of the forest trees, as well as komorebi—the interplay of light and leaves.

IT IS A GARDEN
Photo © Daici Ano

They keep moving and draw a garden of shadows all over the floor at the speed of the moving sun and wind. The interior glass walls and windows create a garden of kaleidoscopic reflections of trees and plants projected on them from every courtyard.

IT IS A GARDEN
Photo © Daici Ano

Not only the courtyards, but such gardens made of immaterial elements that emerge between interplay of vertical and horizontal relationships to nature are also the gardens meaningfully designed in this house.

IT IS A GARDEN
Photo © Daici Ano

Light and shadows move freely as if they were the main inhabitants of this house. The client of the house desired it to be a private space to provide inspiration more than anything else. The architects answered that the first priority of this house should become the sunlight—light being the permanent host, closest cohabitant. Source by Hiroi Ariyama & Megumi Matsubara.

IT IS A GARDEN
Photo © Daici Ano
  • Location: Nagano, Japan
  • Architect: Hiroi Ariyama & Megumi Matsubara
  • Structural engineer: Konishi Structural Engineers
  • Construction company: Niitsu Gumi
  • Site area: 2963 sqm
  • Total floor area: 475 sqm
  • Built Area: 523 sqm
  • Year: 2016
  • Photographs: Daici Ano, ASSISTANT, Courtesy of Hiroi Ariyama & Megumi Matsubara
IT IS A GARDEN
Photo © Daici Ano
IT IS A GARDEN
Photo © Daici Ano
IT IS A GARDEN
Photo © Daici Ano
IT IS A GARDEN
Photo © Daici Ano
IT IS A GARDEN
Photo © Daici Ano
IT IS A GARDEN
Photo © Daici Ano
IT IS A GARDEN
Photo © Daici Ano
IT IS A GARDEN
Photo © Daici Ano
IT IS A GARDEN
Photo © Daici Ano
IT IS A GARDEN
Photo © ASSISTANT
IT IS A GARDEN
Photo © ASSISTANT
IT IS A GARDEN
Photo © ASSISTANT
IT IS A GARDEN
Ground Floor Plan
IT IS A GARDEN
Roof Floor Plan
IT IS A GARDEN
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