大阪唯一の村である千早赤坂村に太平記にも描かれた美しい棚田がある。そんな村の原風景のような棚田の中にぽつんと建つ古民家の改修である。

まずこの美しい棚田を形づくる地形を把握するために高域高低測量を行った。測量データを元に棚田まで含んだ長い断面図をたくさん描いてみる。棚田の大らかさに対し、宅地開発のために設けられた擁壁による高低差や整備された敷地内のフラットな地形があまりに不自然に思えた。さらに断面をいくつも作成し、大きな地形の流れを読み解く。土地の記憶を参照しながら、本来この場所にあった地形へ回帰させるという意識で古民家の1階の床を計画した。

既存の古民家の床と開口の高さ関係では前面の擁壁しか見えなかった。棚田状の新しい床の地形が古民家から棚田方向に自然と視線を誘導する。まるで、もともと棚田の大きな地形の連続の中に屋根が掛かる場所があって、そこがたまたま住居になったような感覚に陥る。

南側にあったお風呂やトイレなどの水回り空間は１・２階の北側に移し、開放された南側には大きな開口と吹き抜けを持つサンルームを配した。棚田と前庭とサンルーム、それぞれ性格の異なる３つの庭に囲われたリビングは力強い柱とガラスが並ぶ明るいピロティのような空間となった。

　地形や歴史、風土など土地に堆積した記憶という大きな流れの中に生活という行為を委ねる家を目指した。

　生物として本能的に感じる心地よさやその場所で生きることへの強い意識に働きかけること、それが本来住居に備わるべき機能なのだろう。

photo / Yohei Sasakura

This refurbishment project of an old traditional house is situated in the village of Chihaya Akasaka in Osaka 

Prefecture. The small village has been portrayed in the Taiheiki _famous 14th century Japanese historical epic _and is well-known for its rugged topography and breathtaking terraced rice fields. 

The clients, a young couple with a baby, wanted to get closer to nature and approach a simpler way of life while offering their child a better living environment to grow up in.

The existing house is bordered all around by beautiful rice paddies and seems like an island lost in the greenery. Although of a good facture and worthy, the house didn’t really engage in any relation with this beautiful and unique context. The leading idea of the project was then very simple :  to understand this very context so as to create a dialogue between the house and adjacent terraces. Thanks to photogrammetric studies, we created a series of sections and models to realize that the terraces should actually be prolonged into the plot and into the house itself. 

By fully opening-up the ground floor and keeping the bare minimum wooden structure, we created a bright and welcoming space that is used as a living room and a kitchen space, connected with a double height sunroom that serves as the entry. The floor mimics the outside environment as it would be its natural extension, creating a unique space and a great playroom for the child.  The second floor is dedicated to more private parts of the house. Here, the design aims to highlight the astonishing views of the surrounding mountains and rice paddies that are all around.

At the plot’s scale, the former warehouses that were surrounding the house were dismantled so as to get more light and to widen perspectives. The new project is now surrounded by different gardens and terraces that each have their unique feeling and characteristics : the front cactus garden, the central garden and the rice terrace for sunsets.