Hayato Komatsu Architects

Open-plan living incorporating diverse views of the Seto Inland Sea.

This house is located in a residential area in the mountains of Uomiyama, located in the western direction from Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture, and is built on a site slightly removed from this area.
The site offers beautiful views of the Seto Inland Sea beyond the windbreak. While we wanted to realize a lifestyle that enjoys this blessed environment, most of the site has a cross-sectional shape that could be described as a cliff, so we had to plan the house on the few remaining areas with gentle slopes.
In order to minimize the amount of ground excavation, the building was arranged according to the shape of the gently sloping area and the difference in elevation, which led to the so-called skip-floor configuration. The space created by the difference in elevation of the site was used to create the space. By manipulating the arrangement and size of the openings in the space created by the difference in elevation of the site, we were able to incorporate a variety of views into the daily life scenes, such as “the view of Kure city from the living room,” “the beautiful evening view from the kitchen,” and “the view over the trees from the children's room. The second floor is half a floor up from the living room. The balcony on the 2.5F, half a floor up from the living room, offers a panoramic view of the Seto Inland Sea and the fireworks display held in the summer. We hope that the space created by the shape of the site will not only allow the residents to enjoy the richness of the surrounding environment, but also to blend in with the changing natural landscape in a way that does not go against the topography of the site.