Japanese architect Akio Nakasa has completed two adjacent houses for one family, side by side in Kanagawa, Japan.

Called A House Made of Two, the buildings have curved facades and face each other around a courtyard, visually linked by markings on the ground and their similar forms and materials.

Deep recesses in the curved facades form porches on the ground floor and first-floor loggias.

Photographs are by Toshiyuki Yano/Nacasa & Partners.

The following is from the architect:

This is a project of one family living in two houses built slightly apart from one another.

One great volume of a house which covers the entire plot was supposed first.

Then this volume was carved in a curve in three segments and two volumes at the both ends were built as two houses on the site.

The wood structures and finishing materials of two houses are standardized to emphasis the relations of two volumes being originally from “one great volume” and that they are one though apart.

Carved volume in the middle became a courtyard leading to the approach to two houses.

Having another house for movies at night, overnight guests or work at home allows the inhabitants the liberty to do what they please at a time they want.

This distance between two houses may be just right for inviting grandparents to move in someday or providing privacy to children at puberty.

The purpose of building two houses slightly apart is not the same as that of having a villa at a resort or a farm household having a main building and a barn.

This project is an experiment for allowing more life style options in the life based in the urban area.

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Project: A House Made of Two
Architects: Akio Nakasa /  naf architect & design
Location: Kanagawa, Japan

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Program: single family residence
Site area: 250.21 sqm
Building area: 105.88 sqm
Total floor area: 179.11 sqm
Project Year: 2009

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