Inamura House and Gardens

稲村の森の家

A house that stands on the border of the town and the forest between Kamakura and Inamuragasaki.

The site is at the edge of a residential area developed in the 1970s and was defined by a large concrete retaining wall. The wall was a boundary, an example of land engineering that creates barriers between the house and the city, between the house and the environment. So our first intention was to modify the terrain and create a flow to the landscape that develops a living place between the city and the forest. We began to think about this action as a kind of ‘reverse development’, reworking the landscape and making a new relationship with the history of the land.

The client wanted to create an open kitchen for the city, a space for the community to grow. We integrated this idea within the landscape by placing it at the center of the site, surrounding the open living room with gardens on each side. We then considered how to open up the house to the street, and designed a small gallery inside the left over garage, as a threshold into the house from the neighborhood.

The landscape was completed by garden designers Yutaka Kawaguchi and Kaori Naito. Our approach was to create a collection of small gardens, with each garden designed as a new interface that connects interior life to the outside.

The second floor was designed as a bright space, open to the environment in all directions. We created a one room-space with a relaxed program, as a way to create a level of flexibility for the house to be changed and reinterpreted over time. The building is clad in rough cut red cedar boards. The roughness of the appearance works to sit the house in the forest. The textured boards absorb oil readily so the exterior will age agreeably over time. The feet of the exterior columns are jacked up off the ground, to prevent the structure from damage and allow for replacement in the future.

The house has been lived in for several years now, and we have begun to see new flow lines reinterpreting the landscape. Paths from the street to the open living room continue beyond the garden into the ancient trekking routes that climb the mountains behind. The gallery and the restaurant are full of friendly faces, keeping the house open to the community and providing a new model for family living in the modern suburb.