Hideyuki Nakayama's '2004' House

Tags:: Architecture

Our September Japan Style issue celebrates design influenced or inpired by Japanese culture. In conjunction with the issue, guest writer Cathelijne Nuijsink will be covering residential projects by the core of young architects presently working in Japan. Week 3: Hideyuki Nakayama.

When Hideyuki Nakayama first sits down to dream up a design, he takes a pencil to paper and starts sketching. With a single line, a blank sheet of paper becomes a spacious floor. He adds another line, erases a dash here and there and the space transforms in the blink of an eye. For "2004," a private residence amid a new residential development in Matsumoto, Japan, Nakayama started off with sketches of a girl sleeping on a blanket with a floor hovering above her. What began as an exercise in exploring spatial relationships through rudimentary sketches spiraled into a home that breaks with convention. Here, we take a look at this delightfully unconventional project.

— Cathelijne Nuijsink

The distance between site and structure is more dramatic in the evening when light shines through the sunken glass living room.

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