Architectural Review Emerging Architecture Awards | Takagi Yoshichika Architects

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I was very excited to hear that one of my favorite homes of 2010, Takagi Yoshichika and Sekkei-Sha’s House K, had placed in The Architectural Review’s Emerging Architecture Awards. Personally, I think they should have won but instead took runner up. The coveted top nod went to a different Japanese architect, a Londoner and a Chinese firm.

Constructed in early 2010 – and subsequently making the rounds on many design blogs – House K is a magnificent structure that embodies everything I could ever want in a home. It’s warm, wooden and structurally stimulating. It’s located in Hokkaido, the “snow country” of Japan, which is interesting because I always thought open-layouts and cold climates were mutually exclusive.

It turns out that the floor plan is a solution proposed by the architects in order to respond to their clients request for an outdoor-like environment, while still maintaining absolute habitable comfort. The clients enjoyed being surrounded by other homes, particularly the look and feel of a village. The rather literal – and might I add fantastic – interpretation of this was to create house-shaped rooms, whose roofs could be used as additional space to climb on and sit on.