A house with concrete louvers offering new interaction potentials.

Nowadays the environmental problems are the most important issue on the Earth.
However, on the other side almost all people prefer using a lot of glass for their house to spread out space and depend a lot on the air conditioner.
Therefore the architects designed a house with a large opening. Using natural energy resources like the warmth of the sunlight and the wind, a comfortable place, cool in summer, warm in winter was created.
The site is on an inland area in the kanto-plain, the hottest place in Japan. The ground is surrounded by the field of spring onions, with a winter sandy north wind. In such harsh environmental conditions the inhabitants of this house, who are by the way extremely sensitive to the cold, desired a warm private space.
The architects picked concrete which has a high calorific capacity. Storing the heat, bringing in the light, emphasising horizontality, framing certain views and reducing cold drafts was achieved by using concrete louvers. The concrete louver offers a new interaction potential between man and house.
The house has the opening, like a gate, to shut out the sunlight and take more wind in.
The space between each concrete louver contracts toward the bottom for blocking the sunlight and widens toward the top for seeing the sky.
That easy turn becomes a sociable screen considering the privacy and temper. The gradation of the sunlight accompany time gives a gaily life.
The Japanese house has had a “central pillar” and has supported the houses and the family’s minds since a long time ago.
But in the present age when an environmental problem became the most important problem the concrete louver offers privacy and energy saving. That gives a new meaning to the central pillar.

ARCHITECT: StudioGreenBlue, Japan, www.greenblue.jp. PROJECT TEAM: Mitsuharu Kojima, Wataru Kobayashi. LOCATION: Fukaya, Saitama, Japan. AREA: 97.50 sqm. PHOTOGRAPHER: StudioGreenBlue. DATE: 2008.
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