In renovating a 200-year old town house, an architect looks to the past
Photos by Hitoshi Kawamoto | click to enlarge
Late last year Tadashi Yoshimura Architects ended a year-long renovation project of Hanauchi-ya, a 200-year old wooden home located in Nara prefecture, about an hour out of central Osaka. Despite undergoing what was thought to be several thoughtless prior renovations and decades of water damage, the plan – all along – was to reuse existing materials as much as possible. As expected, this proved to be a technical nightmare with recurring surprises (“oh look, another wall behind the wall we just tore down”) making it virtually impossible for the architects to ever leave the site.
But look at those results! The seamlessness between old and new materials makes it feel like we’ve been transported back to the 1800s. There are some fascinating pictures of the process up on the architect’s blog. Of note, these pictures of taking reclaimed mud and using it to make walls.
Source: ArchDaily | Tadashi Yoshimura Architects and their blog
February 21, 2012 at 10:21 am
This is so beautiful.
March 2, 2012 at 9:16 pm
Restoring a place as big as this to its original design and material after water damage must have been really difficult. I have to say it must feel wonderful to just take a step back and look at the accomplishment. Very inspiring