The site is located in a rural area of about 1-hour-drive from Nagoya, one of the five biggest city in Japan.
Basically the 4-storey-house has a shape of a cube, 10 metres on each side. Into the cube five walls are inserted with particular angles to make nine rooms. Each room acts as an apartment, mainly for single person. The units are arranged around the central staircase, and each is partitions by the five slanting walls. On the first and the second floor are studio-type rooms that have atriums. In the meantime maisonnette-type rooms are located on the third and forth floor. The five maisonnettes have unique plans; they are arranged in a pinwheel shape around the central staircase, forming a “revolving maisonnette” configuration. All of the rooms of the maisonettes are arranged counterclockwise, each shifted at a slightly different level, giving rise to units that have dramatically different upstairs and downstairs floors. More than organizing the various spaces, the slanted walls emphasize them. So that the residents enjoy two completely different upstairs and downstairs.
The slanted walls are also functioning as braces for the building. Furthermore they have influences on the space composition; a narrow space emphasize its length by the walls slant to inner direction, while a wide space emphasize its own width by the walls going towards outer direction.