This is a tenement house for rent located in a hilly valley where a residential area spreads. Since the site is located relatively close to the university and the station, it is expected that there will be a wide range of rental demand, such as living alone, families, students sharing, and residences and offices. In addition, since it is adjacent to the owner's house, a plan was required that assumed the use of a villa for the family in the future.

In order to solve the ambiguous premise of not knowing who will live and how, we targeted the relationship between rooms and the arrangement of windows for design, and made a plan based on a typical Japanese house's space matrix made by two characteristics, front / back and open / closed. The relationship with the outside created by the arrangement of windows and the distance from the entrance, in other words, the row of rooms with different qualities born from this matrix, is a series of neutral spaces where you can find your own way of life by using the gradation of these qualities as clues.

Considering the characteristics of this site, which has vacant lots on three sides and a level difference with the adjacent land through a retaining wall, we decided it is appropriate to adopt a seemingly ordinary Japanese rental apartment, that is, a two-story building with a 'cliché' Japanese floor plan.And it brings flexibility of use.

住宅街が広がる丘陵地の谷あいに位置する賃貸用の長屋です。敷地は大学や駅に比較的近い立地にあるため、独り暮らし、ファミリー、学生のシェア、住居兼事務所等、幅広い賃貸需要が想定されるとともに、施主宅の隣地でもあることから、将来的には家族のための別邸利用も想定した計画が求められました。

誰がどのように住むかわからないというあいまいな想定をあいまいなまま解決するために、設計の対象を部屋の関係と窓の配置に絞り、前－奥×表－裏のマトリクスを下敷きにした平面計画としました。入り口からの距離と窓の配置による外部との関係性、つまりこのマトリクスから生じる質の異なる部屋の行列は、その質の濃淡を手掛かりに自分に合った住まい方を探すことのできるニュートラルな空間の連なりです。

３方向に空きがあること、擁壁を介して隣地との段差があることといったこの敷地の特性が、田の字プランを重ねた木賃アパートという一見陳腐な形式に妥当性と柔軟性をもたらすと考えました。