photos by hiroki kawada | click to enlarge
Here is another home on stilts, completed just around the same time as the previous one. Located in Ikoma City just 30 min outside Osaka is a house for a couple and their 2 kids. “The site had been divided into two levels with a retaining wall, and vehicle access was to the lower level only. We removed the wall, connecting the two levels with a gentle slope, and floated the house above it,” says Osaka-based architectural firm ninkipen! (the exclamation point is part of the name).
By elevating the house on stilts they created a shielded outdoor play space for the kids that also houses the entrance porch. The interior is divided into different living spaces with the kitchen on the second floor and an attic-like multi-purpose room on the third. The home was given the name “4n” for its adaptable characteristics. N coming from the mathematical symbol used to represent a natural number (as opposed to a nominal number), the home was designed for any family of 4.
