Ladders link the first floor, mezzanine and skylight of this house in Sapporo, Japan, by Akasaka Shinichiro Atelier.

Called Small Box House, the three-storey residence has a dining room on the ground floor, living area and bedroom upstairs and a mezzanine level beyond that.

The interior is clad in wood while the white-painted structure criss-crosses the space.

Photographs are by Koji Sakai.

The information that follows is from Akasaka Shinichiro Atelier:

Small Box House

The residence is built on the western hillside of Mt. Moiwa, overlooking the city of Sapporo.

From the casual lifestyle of the client and his wife, and also the request to have a part of the house turn into a cafe in the future, we aimed to create a space to be flexible to support events, such as the new birth of a child and opening a new cafe, where various life-scenes existing with reasonable distances to each other inside a simple void, like a barn.

The floor, handrails, walls, and also curtains, passing the light through, exist lightly inside each life scenes, so the indication of the residents flow continuously without any distraction. Where is the relaxing space as a living room for the family? Could it be next to the kitchen? Or on the second floor? Various heights in the ceiling and the openings are designed to lead the residents to find a such space in this void.

This client have a sense of enjoying some negative aspects for most people, as positive elements to enrich the daily life, such as siding deteriorations, limited equipments and materials due to the low cost, and snow removal during the winter.

Photography is by Koji Sakai.

Project name: Small Box House
Use: Housing
Location: Sapporo, Hokkaido, ,Japan
Site area: 345㎡
Building area: 57㎡
Gross floor area: 93㎡
Design period: 2008 ~ 2009
Construction period: 2009