➤ Photograghy by Yosuke Ohtake
House in Akashi
Mon oreille est un coquillage
Qui aime le bruit de la mer
—Jean Cocteau, “Cannes V”
➤ Photograghy by Yosuke Ohtake
A 50-year-old house—when the designer leads you inside, it feels like stepping into the heart of a seashell. You can almost hear the murmur of the waves, sensing the magical pull of a space that surrounds and embraces you. And the story of this house traces back to the designer’s childhood memories…
➤ Photograghy by Brook James
➤ Photograghy by Yosuke Ohtake
When holding a seashell to your ear, you hear the sound of the sea. As a child, Akio Isshiki found it strange that he could indeed hear a sound like waves crashing. He imagined the source of the sound must lie deep within the spiral, hidden beyond what the structure allows us to see. Or perhaps there was a hole inside, connecting to a southern island somewhere. Such imaginings spread. Seashells have a mysterious charm that draws people in. The inside of a seashell, which has lost its owner, reflects a faint iridescence, and yet it feels empty, yet filled with something. It might not just be sound, but the scent of the sea, the memories of a living creature, or even layers of time.
This project is the renovation of an existing house located next to the designer's own residence (House in Hayashisaki Matsue Beach). Originally, both the designer’s house and this one were typical old Japanese houses, built at the same time, of a kind that could be found anywhere in Japan. In an era of ever-rising construction costs, Akio Isshiki Architects sought to explore, through the design of these two houses, a way to maximize the use of existing structures and materials to keep costs down, to incorporate the skills of craftsmen, and to create homes that fit comfortably into modern living.
➤ Photograghy by Yosuke Ohtake
➤ Photograghy by Yosuke Ohtake
He doesn’t usually approach design with a specific theme in mind. After first sorting out the rough composition, he pieces together fragments—thoughts like “This might be more comfortable” or “This could be more appealing” for each individual space—to form the overall picture. When functional, equipment, or cost issues arise, He makes adjustments to resolve them, aligning design intent with feasibility. This house is dotted with the geometric spatial qualities born from this process.
➤ Photograghy by Yosuke Ohtake
➤ Photograghy by Yosuke Ohtake
➤ Photograghy by Yosuke Ohtake
➤ Photograghy by Brook James
To allow light in while maintaining privacy from the busy surroundings, the design team created softly enclosed spaces using Shoji screens. All interior doors are sliding doors made from reused existing Fusuma to keep costs down, and when they are opened, the entire house becomes one continuous, looping space. Curved walls created to conceal piping, various shapes that protrude for functions such as lighting and ventilation, a low ceiling with a semicircular cutout for the staircase entrance—these elements appear and disappear as the space extends deeper and deeper, inviting occupants like a soft labyrinth. These characteristics of the house may evoke the inside of a seashell.
➤ Photograghy by Yosuke Ohtake
➤ Photograghy by Yosuke Ohtake
➤ Photograghy by Yosuke Ohtake
➤ Photograghy by Yosuke Ohtake
The instability of the old house such as its log beams and tilted structure, resonates with newly added curves and diagonal lines, as well as the free-form shapes of the homeowner's furniture, softening the house's linear, industrial feel, giving it an overall organic presence. The deeply tanned old pillars and beams hold fifty years of the house's memory. The sliding doors with newly replaced washi paper and the handles from an old chest reused in the kitchen, blur the line between old and new. Sunlight diffuses through Shoji screens and louvers, caressing the curved walls before fading into the depths of the space. The shifting light abstractly connects the scattered elements, dissolving dualisms such as vertical and horizontal, old and new, Japanese and Western, light and shadow.
➤ Photograghy by Brook James
➤ Photograghy by Brook James
➤ Photograghy by Brook James
➤ Photograghy by Brook James
Open the windows and the sounds of the seaside town flow into the house. With the sea breeze come the distant ship's horn, birdsong, the 5 p.m. town chime. Sound, wind, light, memory—these intangible elements fill the space, resonating together and shifting their expression over time.
➤ Photograghy by Yosuke_Ohtake
Principal Designers | Akio Isshiki
Character of Space | Residence
Gross Floor Area | 77㎡
Location | Akashi, Japan
➤ Photograghy by Yosuke Ohtake
