At the center of Takeshi Hirobe Architects’ latest project, a weekend home dubbed Phase Dance, is a tree. Set on a sloping site cleared of dense woodland in the Shizuoka Prefecture, in an area surrounded by homes developed in the 1970s, the architecture studio built around a large Japanese stewartia tree whose presence spoke to them during numerous visits to the property.
The abode is presented as a semi-circle fronted by generous windows that look out to the stewartia tree and the forest beyond. Its footprint follows the inclined ground, rooted to the earth with a cement base that progresses into wood in the higher levels.
The ground floor holds both the social and private areas, with the single bedroom, bath and dressing room appointed at one end of the arc, and an open air terrace on the other. Lounge, kitchen and dining areas progress in sections, leading to the foot of a cement staircase that culminates in a fantastic mezzanine space that is the library and reading nook. The open-plan layout offers constant views of the amazing wood-beam ceilings overhead, arranged in numerous triangular planes.
Just like a dance partners, the home’s different elements engage in a give-and-take routine; a balance of concrete and wood, as well as light and shadow, to achieve a home that blurs the line between contemporary and rustic.
See more from Takeshi Hirobe Architects on their website. Revisit other weekend homes around the world, including a five-cluster weekend home in Mexico’s Valle de Bravo, and this sculptural beauty along the Chilean coast.
Photography © Koichi Torimura for Takeshi Hirobe Architects