Image is important to our clients, not an empty architecture no matter how extravagant. The Japanese sneaker brand, Dragon Beard, asked Anna Nakamura+Taiyo Jinno at the EASTERN Design office to design an office/residence at a slope located in Takarazuka city of Hyogo Prefecture in Japan. Here is how they planned the architecture with the help of symbolism and alertness of the site.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

The EASTERN Design team repeatedly takes symbolism and understanding of site in serious consideration, which is a benefit for the client's image of the architecture. The wants of the clients at American Club International CO, LTD., were an architecture that would be close with the earth but yet feel as if you're a flying bird once you're inside it.

Before getting to the actual architecture of the building, the architects decided to put the ideas of a “slope” into order. What is the definition of a slope? Their answer was: “The correlation between rising and falling (＝up and down), crossing far and nearby nature. The multifarious worlds that make people sense a place called “slope”.”

The team decided to call the house a “mountain.” The plan for this slope is to shape the mountain structurally, but the goal was to let the clients feel the uninterrupted flow of the curves that define the mountain. By giving a sense of closeness to the wave-like architecture, a small change to the curve would lead to a loss of balance. So, they affected the way openings were designed, the mountain and the entire architecture needed also to change its form to fit the structure of the site.

“Architecture is not built on a site where the slope is flattened. By contrary the angle of the slope is increased, which results in two mounds. Between these two mounds a living space is built and the upper story floating on these two mounds is a design room”, says EASTERN Design.

The concept of having the architecture on a slope obtains a symbolism of a visional place that inspires people. “Only on a slope can people look back on the road they’ve climbed and also look at the way they will go from now on.”

The architecture is built on the slope of a hill with an elevation of 330 meters. The level difference of the site is 8 meters. Eight meters is higher than a two-story building. The lower floor is in the ground of the slanted site. It is invisible from the upper road.

Here are the Opening House Images:

The architecture is located in an exclusive residential district that commands an entire view of the Osaka Plain.

Photographer: Koichi Torimura
Structural Engineering: HOJO Structure Research Institute
Constructor: Fukasaka Co., Ltd