Value in Keeping

© Sohei Terui

Architects: Atsumasa Tamura Design Office

Location: Wakayama, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan

Architect In Charge: Atsumasa Tamura

Area: 152.67 sqm

Project Year: 2016

Photographs: Sohei Terui

Site Area: 256.13 sqm

Building Area: 153.54 sqm

© Sohei Terui

Value in KeepingThe 70-years old house was inherited from Owner?s aunt, who bought the original structure to teach Tea Ceremony. A new living quarter was added later to complete this wooden single-story building. It had been left as storage for years and was too damaged, yet Owner chose to keep the old characters, despite cost & time, than to build a new. Inspired by his wish, the renovation began not just to restore but rather to create a space where the old section merges into the new in a harmonious way. The ?Koumori-An? house offers the concept of ?Value in Keeping? which no new house can imitate.
© Sohei Terui

Style of the HouseThe seventy-years old building was not at all an iconic structure but just an ordinary house with Kirizuma roof.  Yet the style of the house should not be changed drastically as it was a part of the landscape and its memory. It is valuable not because it is aged, but because it has been there shapin...