Naoto Fukasawa house, Tokyo
Naoto Fukasawa house, Tokyo

The story of the building created by the Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa to contain his studio and his home begins with a walk along the Nomi River in Tokyo, a small waterway of which only a portion flows above ground. “I wanted to have my own atelier for some time, an independent house where I could live and work. I saw a sign on a plot of land that was for sale, and the idea began to take form,” the designer says.

Naoto Fukasawa house, Tokyo

“Japanese houses always have enclosures to ensure privacy; but this also blocks the view towards the outside. Instead, I wanted to create a garden at eye level when you see it from the street, and to support this garden with stone walls.”

A sort of embankment that reminds us of the terraces in Liguria, on which to place the building. The form comes from an archetype, the house with a sloping double-pitched roof: “As I child I often drew such houses, with an orange tree at the side. It has remained as my archetypal scenario of a happy home.”

Though here the roof has only one pitch, the concept remains the same. The project, carried out in collaboration with the studio Takenaka Corporation, is organized on three levels with an L-shaped plan: the entrance level and the semi-basement (which utilizes the height of the embankment, 1.4 meters) contain the spaces for work; the first floor hosts the living spaces.

The visual fulcrum of the building is the spiral staircase that connects the three levels, where the balustrade – a continuous band of anthracite gray metal – creates a sculptural volume. In the office area and the more private part of the house, the furnishings and technical elements, often designed by Fukasawa himself (for B&B Italia, Boffi, Magis, Marsotto Edizioni, Maruni) are integral parts of the project.

As the designer explains: “For me the furniture, the architecture, even the flatware are all extensions of the same thinking. The main thrust of my work is to make all these elements work together. After all, even in ancient times, when a church was built, for example, sculptors and craftsmen worked together to create chairs, statues, candle holders. Designing this house together with Haruka Fuji of Takenaka Corporation, I never stopped thinking about how all the materials, including their colors, would be mixed.” The result is a setting where everything functions to define the atmosphere. Essential but not cold. What Fukasawa defines as “a normal house.”

Photo © Nacása & Partners Inc., Naoto Fukasawa Design, SS Co., Shimao Nozomu