Lotus House

Eastern Japan
2005.06
Villa
530.27m2

A house by a quiet river, deep in the mountains. I have thought of filling water between the river and the house and planting lotus so that the dwelling would be conveyed by the lotus to the river and continue into the woods on the other side of the river.

The architecture itself is basically composed of holes. It is divided into two wings, with the hole-shaped terrace in between serving to connect the wood in the back of the house with the woods on the opposite bank. Wall surfaces are also designed as countless holes. I have wished to create light walls that the wind would sweep through, using the massive material that is the stone. I have come up with the details of the ‘hole’: thin travertine plates sized 20cm x 600cm and 30mm thick would be suspended from the stainless steel flat bars 6mm x 18mm to constitute a porous checkerboard pattern. The light, porous wall surface that takes advantage of the stone texture is an approach that I have taken once in the past with ‘ Stone Museum (2000). This time, an even lighter detail was made possible by using a ‘flat bar chain structure’: one stainless steel flat bar is connected at its end by being sandwiched to the two bars above and two bars below. The system allows the screen to be very flexible to the outer forces and movement. The travertine stone plate is fastened to this chain system. Since the chain width is thinner that stone panel , suspending element almost disappears and stone appears to be just flowing in the air. Lightness of the stone is an expression of the gentle lotus petals.