Coil by Akihisa Hirata | a house shaped like the letter S

by Johnny on October 1, 2012

all photos by Torimura Koichi | click to enlarge

S stands for super, starchitect, and stairs. But it also represents the underlying core structure in Akihisa Hirata’s latest home. Completed late last year, “coil” is essentially a single space in the shape of an S that wraps around 3 main pillars as its stairway climbs to the top. At various intervals are rooms that hide themselves behind the curving walls.

A seamlessness between stairs and floors, according to Hirata, creates a pattern of visible and invisible segments that renders the space both cozy and inviting.

Although his latest house breathes continuity, his career has been anything but. Just in the last year or so a series of high profile European events has catapulted him into the spotlight.

As it turns out, the client is no stranger to architecture. Having grown up Toyo Ito’s “House in Kamiwada” (1976), he had a home-grown appreciation for organic, ethereal structures and a distrust of simplistic formulas, making Hirata, an ex-protege to Ito, a natural choice.

Hirata’s career

Special thanks to the office of Akihisa Hirata and photographer Koichi Torimura for providing us with photos.

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2 comments

1 cmg { 10.01.12 at 12:43 pm }: interesting. thank you for this: any idea of the size of the house (tsubo or square footage)? The exterior shot makes clear it’s small but I’m curious, how small…
2 Johnny { 10.01.12 at 1:02 pm }: @cmg – sorry, we don’t have that data but here’s a floor plan that might help you make that assessment: http://www.hao.nu/project/coil/coil8.html