Onigiri House

Oita, Japan

Photo © Koji Okamoto

Photo © nks architects

Architects: NKS2 architects

Year: 2005

The small wooden house located in the countryside village was designed for an old couple. The design purpose was to create the maximum volume within the limited cost, and to interweave the house with the surrounding nature.

Because the region is famous for the cider wood production and for the shipbuilding, we decided to use the thick cider board of 50mm x 245mm x 4m as the structure usually used for the ship scaffolding, which was comparably low cost and high quality. The simple tube shape with the quasi-triangular section was chosen for creating the maximum interior volume and for the structural stability. There are the structural connection boxes and the small windows at the top and the two-bottom facets part of the tube.

Through these windows the light and the wind are introduced into the interior, while the tube end has the full opening towards the nature. Since the flooding has happened occasionally in this region, the house is elevated on the foundation poles. The shape of the house seems to be a kind of ark.