A house designed by Mount Fuji Architects is located in a residential area in Tokyo, where the climate is about to change from warm humid climate to rainforest climate in near future.
I’m not making a “house” this time. It should be a lasting “terrain” that induces “habitation”. My goal is to shape the terrain up to a freshly designed “residence” with no pre-established harmony sensed...The project started with questing the best structure and materials to realize “a terrain that lasts forever”.
One existing way to match the structure and finished shape is to use bare reinforced concrete as walls. But it’s of questionable value when it comes to durability. Rain washes alkali away from wall surface and makes it extremely short-lived. Shuttering of coated plywood board makes a smooth surface that looks great on the day of completion, however, weather-beaten, it will look sad and old within a few years. So the architects have invented new construction system. Bare reinforced concrete wall with creasing (h=18mm) every 500 mm apart would keep alkali in and stain off. Larch plywood is used as mold instead of coated plywood in order to transfer wood grain to the surface of the wall to make it textured. That way, aged deterioration turns into something of aesthetic value, just like wrinkles of well-used jeans.
