海山小屋 · 海滨风景别墅设计丨日本

A villa fronting a private drive is a three-minute walk from Isshiki Beach. The

area was a fishing village up until the Edo Period, but resort construction began there in the Meiji Era for the Emperor, Imperial lineage, and renowned people. Houses line the narrow lanes remaining from fishing village times. Since the property steps downhill from the north to south, southside properties are in plain view from the north.

The layout settled on five separate volumes that were not imposing on adjacent houses. volumes are placed around a courtyard hosting the swimming pool and opening southward to the ocean. The building heights generally align with interior functionality but are set in relation to neighboring residences and the roof pitch is adjusted accordingly. The single-pitched roof of the Dining volume is brought to a low building height for the yard of the house to the northwest. A steep-pitched roof for the Living volume affords both courtyard privacy and ocean views for the house close to the northeast property boundary. The roof of the Bedroom volume is pitched downward towards the courtyard for the healthy maintenance of the large camphor tree.

The gaps between the volumes comprise corridors leading to the periphery from the courtyard and provide passages of light and breezes. The connector role between volumes belongs to the pergola with galvanized steel louvers. The pergola covers the southside decking of the Dining volume to buffer the environment and fits between the buildings as shading for the skylights.

The client’s wish at the initial planning stage was to build a simple hut, but the scale of the villa increased over the design phase as functionality increased. Nonetheless, the complex of small buildings harmonizes like a village to blend with the vista of Isshiki’s seaside landscape with deference towards its neighbors.