The site enable to provide natural lighting and ventilation of all rooms despite the compactness of the house. Views through the patio to the rooms and passages of both floors make perception of it more complex and interesting. It also becomes an additional outside room when the weather is fine.

French windows with metal balconies installed on the street side, sliding frame with glazed apron on the patio and garden sides, windows for smaller rooms, sliding frames on the ground floor around the patio and access to the garden.

Although modern, it conveys feelings of something very familiar through the choice of materials, colors, day lighting and the size and balance of the spaces within and without. In defiance to the belief that contemporary homes are cold and uninviting, the house is warm, very intimate and most of all quiet in every sense of the word.

The most magical times being early morning when the haze, dew and bird songs transport you out to the country, and early evening when the rolling fog interwoven with the spectacular sunset lights, break the postcard stillness of the incredible views.

The house exterior was designed to maximize the use of renewable materials. The cladding panels on the garage portion are concrete fiberboard (green) from Switzerland , the house itself is clad with resin fiberboard that is made to look like wood also renewable, from Holland. Most decks are tiled with ceramic slats the look like wood (again to minimize the use of real wood). The roof is powder coated metal and most of the trim is anodized aluminum to match the giant doors facing the view.

When turning back the north view towards the mountain is as well enhanced with the widening view due to the fan-shape of the tilting wooden wall, being a mediator between the northern and southern landscape characteristic. The tilting is an answer and an interpretation of the glacier towards east, they are communicating and the only and huge window in that wall is creating “a painting” of the glacier experienced from the interior. The guest-wing of the building stretches to the canyon and the river towards west. Thus the building concept is a composition and dialogue of views and experiences of the various nature at site.

The façade makes extensive use of glass. The curved wall features clean linear lines. The use of thin, long lines continues on the interiors as well. The row of stairs that connects the ground floor to the upper floor features a thin sheet of slightly tinted glass on either side that serves the purpose of the railing.

The terrace of the house, which faces the north features a built in ‘fire box’ that is the focus of all outside entertaining and provides to a place for relaxation in the evening. The planning divides the building into three wings. Children’s bedrooms, guest room, bathroom and games/TV room are placed on the western side of the house, where as the master bedroom and study are at the eastern side and the main living volume and court yard central to these wings.

Cantilevers and exposed structural elements feature and further add to the strong lines of the building. Upper levels provide shelter for lower levels. The entry to the house has been screened with high stone walls and a planted courtyard. Stone work is featured in other areas as well as on the main terrace. The house boasts of a set of old Indian temple doors to the project which were integrated into the stone walls of the entry court, this rustic touch ties in with the coarseness of the stone.

In order to relax the harder geometry of the building, a combination of timber and stone has been used. The 4.5 meter high glazed walls of the main living room open the home to valley views. Sun penetration and heat loss is controlled via electronic window blinds and low emission glass. The house has also been equipped with a home automation system, collects all potable water, re-uses grey water, and utilizes low energy and low water use fittings. The building also makes use of a range low energy use systems and passive solar design principles.

The main idea of this project is to make a house integrated within the surrounding context, oriented towards the views over the Mera river. The terrain’s slope becomes a solution by designing a house closed to the North and open to the South (where the best sights are), therefore protected from the cold temperatures and open to the natural light. The house featured with simple volumetric composition, the large glass panes, the projecting shapes that break the uniformity of the straight lines, its ample interior spaces and predominant materials: glass, wood and concrete.

The main design features of this project are the simple volumetric composition, the large glass panes, the projecting shapes that break the uniformity of the straight lines, its ample interior spaces and predominant materials: glass, wood and concrete. On the façades, a succession of large windows contributes to dissolve the border between interior and exterior spaces. The project unfolds following these conceptual lines by creating a simple yet beautiful volume composition: a lengthwise axis intersects two parallel prisms at different heights; the latter are the key to the volumetric and spatial distribution of the house.

On the ground floor are the dining room and the living room, which are visually connected with the exterior through a pair of large glass sliding doors giving access to the garden. The floor is completed with the kitchen, two bathrooms and the children playroom. The upper floor consists of two bedrooms with a shared bathroom and a master bedroom with bathroom and dressing room located on a salient block, looking towards the river. The horizontal block contains the stairs that connect the two floors, the living room, the dining room and a small reading and projection room. On a lower level of the same axis are the parking, laundry room and storage spaces. The interior has been designed with a great sense of proportion, balance and elegance on its ample, open and functional spaces, defined by the intersections between the different blocks. The use of wood on the flooring gives a warm feeling to the whole house. An underfloor heating system helps to keep the space clean, avoiding the use of radiators and similar elements. The lighting has been carefully designed; the night views of the house show a harmonic visual effect and transmit a sense of warmth.

The exterior of the building is covered with dark Naturvex, the floor tiles are made of anthracite colour epoxy resin. The roof is covered with a gravel layer. A relax area is located on the back of the house; no artificial materials were used on the exterior gardens.

In the main courtyard, water elements create a focus and patio space is positioned next to the family room which is able to expand to the exterior by opening a folding glass wall. With a double lot (49’) site, the house matches the height of smaller neighbors and the building form broken down into discrete volumes to realize a similar scale.

Oriented to the northeast, the house suits this family of early risers. The house also doubles as their new bach (the old one being sold to pay for it) so the detailing is casual: finger pulls on plywood doors, sliding doors hiding secret laundry and storage rooms and the television is also hidden away. The house provides a backdrop to the theatre of this family’s daily life, and will adapt well to their changing needs.

The entire northern wall of the main living room is glazed, while the southern and western walls have small openings. Soft southern light penetrates the living room, however the northern glazing is what delivers the connection with the garden and beach beyond, also allowing the winter sun to heat the concrete floor slabs. Honed concrete floors are used in most rooms. The main living room has inlayed 400×400 timber tiles with wax finish. Blue stone and white glass mosaics feature in wet areas.

The children’s bedrooms, bathroom and play room all to the west of the main living room with a car stand further west protecting those external walls. The main living room is on ground level opening onto a garden at one end while the eastern balcony is cantilevered well above ground level facing the ocean. The cantilevered balcony has a full height wall on the southern side stopping the cool prevailing winds. The master bedroom, ensuite and sitting room occupy the highest floor level, private and separated. Sustainability has been considered –northern orientation, high & low thermal mass materials, low VOC paints & sealers, low emission glass, grey water re-use system, electronic window blinds providing heat gain/loss control, solar water heating, insulated ceilings and walls, rain water collection and low emission boards used in the cabinet construction.

In the first layer, there is no conventional Japanese entrance to take off shoes but an entrance hall with sand cushion brick-paved floor which leads directly to all the other rooms; main bedroom, tatami room, bathroom and spiral stairs to upper layers. Entrance hall, tatami room and main bedroom are partitioned by sliding doors and when fully opened, the first layer becomes quasi-outside. Sand cushion bricks were paved in the entrance hall to make a semi-outside/ semi-inside space in terms of material and nature of space which leads gradually to more private space. From the entrance hall, stairwell partly covered by translucent FRP passes through the second layer, void, and leads directly to the third layer. Stairwell is covered by FRP in the second layer and only light can be taken into the stairwell. It serves as “light well” during the daytime and diffuses light to first and third layer. Up in the third layer are living, dining and kitchen. On the floor are two openings; one from the stairwell from the first layer and the other to the second layer, sole access to the open space by ladders. Third layer is wooden structure, and wood beams and roofboards are all exposed. It is a nest-like enclosed space with picture window on the north and south and tiny round windows.

Steel-frame structure was employed for first and second layers as application of slim materials is available by concentrating the stress. Third layer, on the other hand, employed wooden framework construction method which was developed from traditional Japanese method. Structure of the first and second layers is distinctive with employment of ?100???140? steel pipes for first layer and?60? steel pipes for second layer, all of which are oblique in different angles. In Japan, a seismic country, diameters of pillars tend to be large to resist the force of earthquake and installation of bearing walls with braces tends to be frequent practice. The framework is calculated on the assumption of resistance to enormous force of earthquake which does not exist in everyday life. However, pillars of extremely small diameter can resist vertical and horizontal load simultaneously when correctly tilted and positioned. When this formula is found, the space free from enormous force or conventional structure method floats in the air as natural as up above brunches of trees.

For the fear of water damage caused by the rice fields and ponds around here after rain, the main approach of this building was taken from the higher road. The entire building, which has a widespread deck terrace, is held up altogether to 1.3 meters from ground level by using steal skeletons, and thus, under-floor-space can be used as open space like a pilotis. Since the ground always has a lot of moisture, it is best to get cross breeze in the space. The use of a lifted concrete base makes ventilation even better.