Outside Tokyo, in front of a majestic Buddhist temple surrounded by a park that stretches over several blocks, the practice of Elsa Escobedo and Shohei Kuma has built a one-family house that silently engages in dialogue with the surroundings. Guided by the concept of a ‘mirroring world,’ it does not only draw inspiration from the closed arrangement of the temple, but even reflects it architecturally, symbolically bonding with it through the axis of the road that separates them.

With a built area of 101 square meters and a timber frame, the project satisfies the desires of the client: to preserve views of the temple, ensure privacy on the street side, and ensure a fluid visual connection between the kitchen and the living room. To achieve all this, the house was divided into two volumes. The main one, rising two levels with a quarter-circle plan at the rear of the site, frees up space for a void that has the effect of prolonging the temple park visually. Close to the street, a single-story annex provides a transition and a visual anchorage point.

The metal facade of the main building folds into five green planes following a circular arch, a gesture which regulates sunlight from the south and minimizes the shadows cast. A fence zigzags along the perimeter, giving privacy without visually isolating the house. The interior combines materials like concrete flooring and cypress plywood treated with natural oil.

On the ground floor, three autonomous, seemingly randomly positioned structural elements mark the spatial composition. A white box signaling the entrance acts as a loadbearing wall. Each of the circular pillars that delimit the wet zone hold up a beam. The pillar and the beam assembled in a T bear the vertical loads.

Upstairs, three aligned rooms are laid out behind parallel partitions that start from the edges of the facades. From each one, windows arranged like a fan give privileged views of the temple and garden.

Fotos: Shohei Kuma