Tezuka Architects' Engawa House in Latest Issue of Dwell
The latest issue of Dwell finally showed up in my mailbox yesterday. It was two weeks late compared to normal, and to be honest, I was starting to freak out a little bit. But my patience was rewarded! It's a good issue that focuses on spectacular small homes. And in particular, it features yet another splendid Japanese modern home, the Engawa House in Tokyo by Tezuka Architects. Oh joy!
I must say, I love this house. I really do. At only 802 square feet, the Engawa House lives very large. Its long sliding glass wall along one entire side draws little or no distinction between the home's interior and its pleasant little garden. The clean, uncluttered design of compact and efficient spaces helps the house feel a lot bigger than it is.
And the floor plan is just great. It's a little unconventional by western standards, but it looks exceptionally livable to me. And I have an idea. I think this simple rectangular box, with this floorplan, could be the basis of a great prefab, expandable/modular home system. You start with the main 800 sq-ft house, prefab and delivered to your site. It's designed in such a way that additional modules can be added to each end to enlarge the space slightly over time as family needs change or as money allows. As your family grows a little you add on a second prefab module - a 16x16 square living room that tacks on the kitchen end. A third module can be added to the other end to give you a master bedroom with its own efficient bath. Basically, the original 800 sq-ft house gets expanded by another five hundred or so square feet - still modest in size but a little larger overall.
Wouldn't it be great to build a house this way - a little at a time, prefab, so you can buy what you need when you need it, and save the money for each module ahead of time instead of having to take out a bigger and bigger mortgage (instead of paying interest , which drives up lifetime cost, you make interest on your savings, and reduce the time to ownership and avoid debt). Why don't we see more solutions like that coming? I hope that the recent boom in modern prefab will bring us some interesting new options.
The Tezuka Architects site shows a lot of their houses (and their other projects). I dig their work. They've done some really cool houses. The two pics below are of another one I like a lot, the Observatory Room House. More great stuff from Japan. Very inspiring.
Image Credits - Tezuka Architects site
13 comment(s):
This is a Great website. I am glad I found it.
Thanks Paul! I'm glad you like the site. Please visit me again.
This really is a great house (aside from the issues that would never fly in america). Simple geometry, relatively easy to build, the design would stand up to a range of material and product choices. You can see the same characteristics in several of their other designs as well.
You're right Greg, this house, great as it is, just would not sell in the USA. Too small, for one thing. I like small houses, but 800 sq-ft is really tiny for a family of four. But I find myself very drawn to Japanese houses because they challenge the American housing paradigms. In my case, I really want a smaller, more efficient, more affordable home. It's weird how we quickly get caught up in the "buying up" game. My first house was 1200 sq-ft, 3 BR, 1 bath, with a really spacious living room and a decent kitchen. it had a small screened porch. Nice windows. I don't see why that wasn't big enough, and we didn't even have kids back then. It had a great plan that lived a lot bigger than it's square footage. It was in a nice, small town, and we walked or rode our bikes everywhere. I miss that place.
this is a nice site. i found it searching for "engawa house" on the web. my wife and i are building a house and i'm wondering if anyone can identify the woodstove used in the engawa house (or any of the houses these architects have designed) or something similar. nothing i've found online comes close to it in shape. everything else is too country-ish.
John, I think we would find people in the US that would go for 800sqft w/ kids before the went for the bathroom space open to the common ceiling!
People in the US obviously go for houses that are uselessly large, but among the smaller market for modern homes I think you would find more people that ignore that trend and seek smaller homes. However even within that subset I'm quite sure those people will want the bathroom to be more discrete than this.
Justin - do a search for rais stoves.
Haha! That open-ceilinged bathroom is pretty weird by American standards. The same issue of Dwell has a condo apartment in it (article title is "Stripped Ease") which is just one big open space, very minimalist, and the bathroom in one corner is just barely partitioned off with a screen made of sticks. Definitely not for me!
As for stoves - definitely Rais Stoves - the defacto standard modernist stove. Really nice.
I just finished working at Tezuka Architects as an apprentice architect. The design work at Tezuka Architects is very practical so for me it is interesting to see all of the "this will never fly in America" comments. Tezuka architects builds mostly around the Tokyo area where lots are expensive - houses need to stay modest in size and flexible. Common spaces need to be shared by all of those in the home. These are things that American families already did until everyone started wanting their own "retreat" in their home. Having huge sprawling homes only segragates families.
The bathroom at the Engawa house is actually very comfortable. Think about using a public bathroom. The stalls do not cover floor to ceiling- in fact in the most part they dont cover floor or ceiling. I dont feel particularly exposed in a public bathroom stall so why would I feel exposed in my own home. The open ceiling allows for the bathroom to connect to the rest of the house similarly to the way that all of the other rooms interconncet. When you have small square footage you need to take advantage of the ability to have higher ceilings. We need to learn how to live vertically. And not only in the cities but even out in the suburbs. I would encourage looking into the "House to Catch the Sunlight" at only 282 square ft this house is perfect! Everyone in the common spaces (2nd level) can communicate easily and in the private spaces (1st level) each person has access to the outdoors - you never feel trapped. We need to think about making our homes not keep us captive.
Jeffrey,
I'm thrilled to have you comment on this post! Fantastic! I place the Engawa House in my top five favorites. It's really great.
As for the points you make - I totally agree. I still think most Americans wouldn't go for it, though that attitude is changing. And with cool houses like this getting attention it certainly helps people challenge their paradigms. I for one would much rather live in this very nice home than the typical American spec house several times its size.
By the way, Jeffrey, are you American? If so, now that you are done with your apprenticeship, please come back home and bring what you learned in Japan back to the USA. We need you!
I think the rise in utilities and fuel prices are making more Americans aware of the costs our "oversized" lifestyle. But good luck trying to get a building permit in any cities for a small house. American cities are notoriously married to developers and realtors who push for their agendas, thus cities require Mcmansions, with 1/4+ acre lots, grassy lawns, minimum sq ft. limit, etc.. Sorry to side track from the topic. I really like the house; I am looking for ideas for apartment projects in China. So if this design can be expanded into a highrise it would be perfect. Anyone has suggestions on a good design/plan for apt. buildings?
it's great to see so many architects challenging our greed when it comes to our living space. And such a beautiful design too.
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