InBetween

Designed by Koji Tsutsui Architect & Associates the InBetween House has created a new look into traditional Japanese architecture. The home cohesively integrates a series of small mountain cottages into one focal structure, with the careful use of their relationships to one another.

Looking into their material and spatial characteristics, the structure grasps a myriad of Japanese techniques yet seems to shed new light upon them. Traditionally speaking Japanese architecture has been defined by its efficient use of space, minimal techniques, and it’s accentuation of beauty within a space and the site it sits upon. Utilizing the negative space from the cottages’ relationships paired with minimal furnishings, the InBetween House creates a central living space with its focus on efficiency. Paralleled with this notion, in terms of materiality it is quite minimal as well. With a focus on the use of wood, the structure attempts to blend into the site, unaffecting the nature of the surrounding area and rather making it a highlight of the home itself.

Compared to the basis of American architecture, Japanese homes seem to respond to spatial efficacy as the crux of their design, while Americans indulge in a slightly more lavish based lifestyle. Contradictory to this though are many similarities and ties between American and Japanese design. At this point and time American architecture has found a basis on minimalism and clean rectilinear spaces. Although we don’t typically focus on the maximum efficiency of our spaces, we have seemed to find this as a common ground with Japanese techniques.

Billy