House in Sanjo

To ensure privacy within the shared program, the living areas for both generations are sectionally offset. The first-floor parents’ living area is designed as a single-story wing, lending an intimate scale to the southern streetscape. The second floor features an open, circular plan centered around a core, where daily life unfolds against a panoramic backdrop of the surrounding rice fields. Responding to the orderly patterns of the rural landscape, the symmetrical elevation is accented by a protruding volume on the second floor, which serves as a porch roof for the garden entrance below. The house is a synthesis of modest, thoughtful interventions that engage deeply with its regional context.Located in Sanjo, Niigata, this wooden two-generation residence responds to the distinct environmental demands of Japan’s snow country. In this region, where snow-melting pipes line the streets and carports are a prerequisite for daily life, the design embraces the carport as an integral part of the site’s architecture. The entrance is conceived as a high-volume atrium that rises above the carport roof, leveraging elevated windows to secure ample natural light and ventilation. This atrium acts as a climatic device: in winter, it draws in solar-heated air, while in summer, it brings in air cooled by the shade of the carport. This natural cycle is facilitated by internal openings in the second-floor washroom and louvers in the stairwell that lead to a rooftop skylight.