A renovation of a 50-year-old terrace house in Niiza, Saitama. The interior was simplified to preserve its original character while highlighting the client’s curated objects. Shaped through a collaboration between architectural guidance and the client’s DIY efforts, the space maintains a unique tension between professional design and the owner’s personal touch. This approach fosters a deep connection to the ongoing acts of living, maintaining, and customizing, extending the design process far beyond the project’s completion.
By treating structure, apertures, furniture, and finishes as independent components, the house acts as a prototype for adaptability across shifting life stages. At the rear of the site, an untouched slope remains, designated for future expansion. As both the creator and resident, the architect will continue to reshape the home, evolving the living space to mirror the family’s growth.This project serves as the architect’s private residence, situated on a developed hillside lot between Takasaki’s city center and the Kannon-yama mountainside. The site, carved from a slope two decades ago, features a subterranean garage at street level with a flat plateau above. Given the load-bearing limits of the precast concrete garage and strict setback regulations, the resulting architecture is a north-south elongated, staggered two-story volume that captures city views from its northern elevation.The structural integrity is maintained by a double-wall perimeter system, intentionally decoupled from the internal layout. This approach allows the interior to be constructed with furniture-like flexibility, independent of the primary frame and easily reconfigurable over time. The increased depth of the double walls further integrates functional elements, such as deep windowsills, shelving, and enhanced insulation. Similarly, openings were planned independently of the structure to optimize visual connections and harness the prevailing winds of the sloping terrain.
Except for specialized plumbing work, the majority of the construction is being carried out by the owner as a DIY project. To accommodate the owner as an amateur builder, the plan incorporates a high degree of flexibility and room for intervention. From the demolition phase onward, we held repeated meetings between the owner (as the builder), the designer, and the contractor to share and refine the vision for the finished space. We look forward to seeing how the owner’s DIY originality will shape the environment in ways that transcend our original expectations as designers.A renovation of a 30-year-old, two-story wooden house in Ishihara-cho, Takasaki City. We transformed both the first and second floors into open-plan layouts and added an extension that serves as both an entrance and a cloakroom. To draw natural light deep into the interior, we also enlarged the south-facing windows on each floor.
Residence @ Takasaki, Gunma Design: Sunao Koase, Noriko Koba /SNARK Inc. Construction: Roccadia design and works Total area: 80.30㎡ Completion: Nov. 2021 Photo: Ippei Shinzawa
This is a project to build a new vinyl bar in Takasaki. We were in charge of the interior design of the bar on the first floor. It is a place to enjoy music with numerous vinyl records, jukeboxes, and various types of audio equipment. We designed a series of shelves and counters to hold these different sized objects in a limited space. It became a place where the owner’s favorite things are gathered and where customers can feel the groove there.
Record Bar @ Takasaki, Gunma Design: Sunao Koase, Ayaka Seki /SNARK Inc. Construction: Sukiya Construction Total area: 60.58㎡ (1F/30.29㎡ 2F/30.29㎡) Completion: Nov. 2021 Photo: Lo.cul.p
This is a renovation project for a high-rise condominium in Tenmabashi, Osaka. The room has an open view along the Kyu-Yodo River and gets plenty of sunlight. We used a lot of natural materials and elaborately designed the areas touched by hands and the way sunlight shines the room. Using cherry wood as a base, we designed a calm room with gray tones to match the plastering on the walls, the stone for the kitchen counter top and the wool on the floor. By selecting chair upholstery, curtains, sofas and interior accessories, we were able to incorporate our ideas into every detail of the space.
Residence @ Tenmabashi, Osaka Design: Rei Oshima, Mami Umayahara /SNARK Inc. Project Management / Design Direction: Masayuki Sakurai, Yohei Yamaguchi /TRAIL HEADS Construction: vico Floor area: 100.82㎡ Completion: Dec. 2021 Photo: Daisuke Shima /ad hoc
We designed a sales office for Kuribara Medical Instruments, a medical equipment dealer which has more than 20 branch offices mainly in the Kanto region. Based on the company’s request to create an office that fits the company’s brand image and the way employees work, the plan includes a space where people inside and outside the company can gather and interact with each other. The company is also looking to renew other branches in the future.
Office @ Toyosu, Tokyo Client: KURIBARA MEDICAL INSTRUMENTS Inc. Design: Rei Oshima, Mami Umayahara /SNARK Inc. Project management /Design direction: Nozomi Takayama, Masayuki Sakurai /TRAIL HEADS Construction: Sumitomo Realty & Development Co., Ltd. Total area: 720.10㎡ Completion: Jun.2021 Photo: Kazuhisa Kota
The office of the video production company HOEDOWN and the wellness company TOYOKE. Although the interior is simple, we tried something new in every part of the office such as rubber chip flooring, a door with an elongated viewing window and large desks in which electrical outlets are embedded.
Office @ Shibuya, Tokyo Client: HOEDOWN INC. Design: Yu Yamada, Mami Umayahara /SNARK Inc. Construction: Total Project Total area: 93.5㎡ Completion: Apr. 2021 Photo: Ippei Shinzawa
This is a renovation of an apartment in Nakano, Tokyo. In order to make the most of this small apartment of 43㎡, we made it one room except for the bathroom and the walk-in closet. The dining room, the living room and the bedroom are separated by short walls extending from the ceiling. Even with a limited budget, we aimed to create an expressive space by designing furniture for the living room and accessories for the bathroom.
Residence @ Nakano, Tokyo Design: Yu Yamada, Mako Shimanuki /SNARK Inc. Consulting: ReBITA inc. Construction: Yushin Construction Total area: 43.71㎡ Completion: Aug.2021 Photo: Ippei Shinzawa
A new building for a small pastry and coffee shop in a suburb of Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture. Since most of the roads around the site are used for daily life, we designed a square building with a gable roof, thinking that the exterior should blend in with the surrounding houses rather than looking commercial. On the other hand, in order to create a shop-like atmosphere, we added elements that would not be found in ordinary houses, such as a large window on the façade, a blue door that matches the roof, a curved niche and concrete floor at the entrance, and a slanted building approach. The walls, ceiling, and counters are all painted in pale beige, which creates a bright space surrounded by natural light coming in through the windows.
We designed a display shelf for 13 COFFEE ROASTERS’ pop-up store. Considering that they will open a pop-up store in various locations in the future, the shelf was designed to fit into a roll pallet so that it can be easily carried in and out. The shelf, which was made of steel frame and polyester faced plywood, has the same aspect ratio as the package size of SCENE BLEND, a new product of 13 COFFEE ROASTERS. The shelf will continue to be used in different combinations according to the location of the store.
Pop-up store @Takasaki, Gunma Design: Sunao Koase, Noriko Koba, Ayaka Seki /SNARK Inc. Client: 13 COFFEE ROASTERS Steel parts: gambit Set up: SNARK D.I.Y. Completion: Mar.2021 Photo: Lo.cul.p