A HOME FOR SELF AND GUESTS

This project reimagines the Japanese home as a porous framework for family life and hospitality - how it might hold memory, remain open to the life of a community, etc. It is grounded in the idea that the house has always served as a medium for architectural experimentation where new ways of living can be quietly rehearsed. Rooted in the traditions of the Japanese house and informed by its history of impermanence, the project asks how domestic architecture might embrace change while establishing a lasting relationship with its context. Sited within Miyamura Children's Park in Tokyo, the house challenges the conventional separation between the private home and public by treating the park as a secondary client. The traditional engawa, historically positioned along the perimeter of the home as a threshold between inside and outside, is reimagined as an interiorized circulation core that wraps around a central courtyard and connects the park, street, and rooftop. Around this core, a series of idiosyncratic volumes accommodate the specific desires and rituals of my family, including a bento stand, kickboxing gym, sunroom, onsen, and individual retreats. These spaces are supported by a lightweight steel framework of stacked “tables,” creating an open structural armature into which the home can grow, contract, and transform over time.