A house, also used as a shop, was developed for a couple running a cafe at the foot of Mt. Tsukuba surrounded by farm fields in a rural landscape. The site used to be a nursery for afforestation grown by the father of the client.

There is no large or tall building around the site, therefore the requested volume of the building appeared to be too large and out of place within the surrounding environment and neighboring houses. It was not visible in the specification, but something rather intuitive concern. I received some inspiration from the vinyl houses for agriculture found here and there in the area; in order to keep the volume of the building small, and adapt the building naturally to the environment as if it has been there from the beginning like those vinyl houses, the building was separated into two main volumes for the residence and the shop, each topped with a gable roof. It is a building design naturally merging into the surrounding scenery by diminishing the presence of the building volume, so to speak.

Those randomly distributed wooden columns inside of the cafe metaphorically represent the trace of the previous nursery. This is based on the idea to keep the memory of the nursery view during the first visit of the site, while the interior space would provide the pleasant atmosphere for visitors as if having a meal under the shade of trees. There are three shed-like spaces distributed among those wooden columns, each with a second floor seating space. This produces various seating conditions, enabling visitors to choose spots based on their mood and situations.

Considering the context of the site, and the building harmonizing with the surrounding environment, the building turned out to acquire a pleasant natural charm.