Hokkaido, Japan
An ongoing condominium project in proximity of a farm and located near a resort area. In a harsh environment like Niseko’s and in order to cope with a local population increase, which is rare in Japan, it is more rational to plan for a condominium rather than individual houses when looking at it from an energy saving point of view. The problem is that the building volume, which inevitably grows, does not fit the original landscape dotted with small houses rising from the rich natural environment and agriculture. In this project, we devised a style called ”IE-MURE”. A group of houses designed to solve these two conflicting issues. The convex and concave exterior skin is designed so that each segmented volume does not deviate from the volumes of the surrounding villas and houses, while keeping the efficiency of the exterior skin area. Adopting a flat roof (no-snow-fall roof) to avoid snow removal for an aging household simultaneously satisfies the building’s appeaance and functionality.
