The client planned to renovate a house for a family of four, a couple in their 30s, in Yotsukaido City, Chiba Prefecture.








Photo : Masato Chiba

　The client is a graphic designer from this city, and had been living in a rental house right next door before buying this house. Considering the children's school district and his love for his hometown, the location and conditions of the house naturally led him to purchase and renovate a second-hand house in a detached housing complex where he had been living at the time. The house was originally built by a big company house builder.

　The house purchased was originally a small house of less than 100 square meters built 40 years ago by a house builder, and was later expanded about 12 years later by a local construction company to a two-story wooden house of about 130 square meters. The client liked the simple, old original part of the house, but did not seem to like the addition, which was made of new construction materials in a luxurious style, so it was decided to demolish and reduce the building.

However, the original part was not enough space for a modern family of four, and considering the owner's life at home, where he works a lot, it was thought that it would be better to add at least a work area. Therefore, we decided to install a workspace that protrudes from the original part of the house so that the family can live without worrying about working late into the night or having many visitors.

This workspace has a large lighted window, but we thought if it would be possible to make the dug-in floor surface allow for concentration without worrying about the outside view while working, while at the same time making the window feel like a lantern at night as a city light in a residential neighborhood, a locally based graphic designer's workspace.

The original part of the house was also made into a large space by removing walls, while the kitchen, which had been built on the north side, was moved to the pleasant east side, where the atmosphere of the work space can be felt. The staircase made of solid lauan was left as it was when the wall was removed, and the ceiling was also left as it was when the wall was removed.

The client used a fashion analogy in the interior planning process, and wanted a patchwork-like, somewhat removed, rough atmosphere with a touch of originality. The project was planned to be finished in a neutral way with white paint and solid oak flooring, while retaining the existing parts as uncertainties. Many of these decisions were made based on the client's ideas, and details were also determined through dialogue with the client.

The overall project reflects the ideas of all parties involved, with the carpenter Mr. Zheng in charge of the shelving and design of the work area and dining room, and Woodwork, a furniture designer and distributor based on Okachimachi Tokyo, in charge of the design and construction of the entrance door.

In a suburban detached housing complex in one of Chiba Prefecture's biggest bedroom towns, the second generation of the couple, in a way of owning a house basically second hand houses are precondition that is not a newly built single-family home on a vacant lot for sale, hopes that their children, who are growing up together with their father and respect and are greatly influenced by his work, will have a stress-free life in their own way, not in a boxes prepared by others.