控え Art-Director-Family Designed: A Home Where Fami
The Hokusetsu area of Osaka enjoys great popularity due to its lush natural environment, convenient transportation, and access to a downtown district rich in amenities. The area is where we find Mr. Hirochika Horiuchi, his wife and their daughter, along with Mrs. Horiuchi’s mother, in their beautiful, newly built home. It used to be just the three of them, Mr. and Mrs. Horiuchi and their daughter living in a condo they had purchased. Then the couple decided that Mrs. Horiuchi’s mother should join them, and that’s when they decided to look for a house where all four of them could live together. Although they had looked at various areas, including Mukonosho and Ashiya, they decided that this area that would provide an easy commute and ready access to the Shinkansen (bullet train) and the airport would be best, as Mr. and Mrs. Horiuchi often uses them for business trips.
★Aki: a downtown shopping district.
★Aki:More clear if you say “Before the owner built the house, “
★Aki: I added.
Under the family’s ideal for their home, “space of family: close by, anywhere and everywhere,” the couple renovated their previous home from a three-bedroom condo to a one-bedroom one with a separate dining room and kitchen. For this renovation, with the same concept used in their new house — “home where family, friends and everybody gather,” they hired and worked with Kenji Hashimoto Architecture Office. Being art directors themselves, the couples wish was for the designer and architects to really understand and visualize what they had in their ideal designs and images for their new home. So, in order to gather information and materials they looked into various websites, books and magazines. They used Houzz a lot, of course.
★Aki: how about “home where family, friends and everybody enjoy gathering”?
★Aki: deeply
★Aki: In order to realize their wish, the couple gathered information and materials through various websites, books and magazines.
The couple’s goal was to ensure family unity in the sharing of their space and time together. They wanted to avoid having a room or a home office where they’d lock themselves away. Accordingly, they pursued the idea of where to and how to store their work reference books, which used to pile up in the living room in their old condo. Eventually, they decided to create bookshelves upstairs. The idea motivated them to create some kind of workspace within the house; something that would consist merely of a desk, chair and computer. By opening up the upper side of the wall, the living room can now be seen from the “office.” The space can be used comfortably without being shut off, and the downstairs conversation and chatter can easily be heard upstairs. The single downside of this arrangement is that conversations, noises and voices can be reached all the way to the master bedroom, which is located down the hall from the office space. Mr. Horiuchi sometimes wonders if their implementation of the plan was “perhaps too extreme.”★Aki: This point is unclear to me. How about “However, they need a place (or solution) to store their work reference books”
There are two ways to get up to the office space. One is by the ladder in the living room and the other is by the stairs next to the kitchen. On the bookshelves, one can find not only the couple’s reference books but also their artwork, products and all kinds of books. The subjects range from hobbies and children’s books to anime and an old encyclopedia. On the desk there is a computer, which can be used either upstairs or downstairs.
The house has a particular advantage in comparison to their old condo: a spacious five-by five-meter (16.4 ft x 16.4 ft) deck off the living room. The couple designed it to provide one big space for everyone, so that family, friends and guests could gather and enjoy one another’s company.★Aki: not “enjoy with”?The cushions are put away on rainy days, but the couch itself is designed for outdoor use with water-resistant material. So, it easily resists the elements. At the center of the deck is a parasol and a table, which Mr. Horiuchi made. When the weather is nice, the family gathers at the table for the simple pleasure of a meal. In the summer, they set up a kiddie pool and enjoy their family time. Mrs. Horiuchi’s mother cherishes the hours spent on the deck in the company of her granddaughter.
The couple like to have parties on the deck, to which they invite co-workers and friends. Sometimes the guests will bring dishes, and other times they cook together. Thus, each generation makes ample use of the outdoor space. As the picture shows, Mrs. Horiuchi seated on the couch, wears a broad smile.Can you imagine looking up the starry sky on here on a beautiful night? You could enjoy some of the many Japanese cultural events, such as Tanabata in the summer, where you’d hang up colorful strips of paper and wish upon a star; or Otsukimi in the fall, where you could enjoy a meal under a full moon that appears close enough to touch.
The couple and friends have enjoyed yoga lessons taught by a friend in this spacious 48-square-meter (about 570 sq ft) living room.Thanks to a sliding door left open to the deck, they can enjoy a light workout as the breeze dances in through the space. Moreover, on hot summer days the room is naturally air-conditioned. Every day is more pleasant and productive in this open arrangement.★Aki: This part is not in Japanese text.
Mr. and Mrs. Horiuchi love cooking together, and their kitchen is an ideal place in which to engage their passion for the culinary art.Mr. Horiuchi devised the arrangement of kitchen cabinets and shelves on the back wall. First he laid out all the plates, bowls, cups and other dishes, and counted them. Then he stacked them in order to obtain accurate measurements. Then, together with Mrs. Horiuchi he designed the cabinets and shelves.★Aki: not in Japanese. Cut?Household trash must be separated into several categories, such as combustibles, plastic and recyclable, but the rules for such classification vary from one community to the next. Before the family moved to the area, they conducted research, bought garbage cans of the proper size and then designed the space to accommodate everything in the best possible way.
In an ordinary household, the standard size of a countertop with a built-in sink is approximately 250 cm (about 100 inches) by 60 to 65 cm (about 24 to 26 inches). Here, given their love of cooking, the couple decided to go with a very specious one of 300 by 105 cm (118 by 41 inches) along with the specific faucet they wanted.
They are very pleased with their decision and find it very useful, particularly in regard to the extra-long countertop. Mrs. Horiuchi and her friends have had baking classes here, and the countertop proved large enough for each participant to have her own space in which to knead dough.This is true not only during cooking classes but also on a daily basis. On any given day the couple and Mrs. Horiuchi’s mother—along with friends—will be in the kitchen together. Of course, it was part of the plan. They had even allowed enough space between the countertop and the back shelves so no one would be in another person’s way. The 110 cm (about 43 inches) they have allowed for this space is almost the double the average of 60 to 75 cm (about 24 to 29 inches).
The clean white bathroom sink and walls accentuates the sanitary aspect of the space. The mirror above the sink is three-sided, which comes in handy when one is getting dressed and prepared for the day. Inside the mirror fixture there is storage space, so the sink area stays free of clutter. The little red chair is for purposes both decorative and practical.
The washer hides behind the folding door next to the bathroom. Laundry detergent and other items are stored on the shelf above the washer to keep the area tidy. The couple came up with this unique, convenient way to hang-dry their laundry. After the clothes are washed, they’re placed on hangers suspended from the ceiling on a bar. Then, once everything is done, the whole thing is taken outside.★Aki: not “washing mashine”?At a typical household in Japan, you may often see the laundry hanging up on the second floor. However, by locating the laundry room and the hanging bars on the first floor, the laundry chore takes less time and the mother-in-law, who usually takes cares of the laundry, can get it done without being inconvenienced.
From the left in the photo: Mr. Horiuchi, their daughter, and Mrs. Horiuchi’s mother.“When we asked Mr. Hashimoto to design our new home, my wife and I first wrote about our everyday life,” Mr. Horiuchi says. “Then we had him come over to our condo so that he could see and understand what kind of lifestyle we actually had. This wasn’t going to be just some everyday purchase, because we would spend the next decades living in this home. We wanted to keep our priorities, needs and wants straight.” ★Aki: How about “time schedule for 24 hours”?Mr. Horiuchi’s believes, that life and time at home should be comfortable and enjoyable. Otherwise, a home of 20 years would only give the family 20 years of stress, which would ultimately affect their work performance and well-being.★Aki: It should be “if a home has some negative points, 20 years would only give the family 20 years of stress”“That’s why we took our time to think everything through and to show the designer and architects what kind of lifestyle we would really wanted,” he says, smiling in his characteristic way. “We did what we could do, from our thorough research to counting the dishes and drawing diagrams. When we were in the pro...
What’s common between the family’s former condo and the new home is that, in the new place, all are visible to one another as they are at home. The couple explains that they feel safer and more comfortable in an open space such as in the living room, where they can see and feel the presence of the rest of the family members as opposed to being “locked away in some enclosure.” Therefore, just like the condo they had renovated, they had requested that their new home have one large, open space from the kitchen to the dining room and living room.★Aki: I felt the subject is too long. How about “All are visible to one another” is the common ground between the family’s former condo and the new home.The couple sometimes bring their work home, and at such times they prefer to do it in the space where they can feel everyone’s presence. Their wish includes their daughter as well, who also stays out in the living room when she does her homework.Houzz at a GlanceWho lives here: Married couple with a child and a mother-in-lawLocation: Toyonaka City, OsakaSite area: 260 sq m (about 2,800 sq ft)Built area: 180 sq m (about 1,900 sq ft)Structure: WoodYear Built: August 2015Architectural Design: Ken...
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