Here is the story. We got 4 months. We had a house which was crap. So we needed another house to live in. This other house was located in Zushi. And we had a deadline for leaving this house: 30th of June which was 6 weeks after moving in. 6 weeks to make our own house in SHIOIRI habitable.
The house is on a mountain. No roads, no trucks. Just human power. At a temperature of 30° centigrade average, humidity 95%. Weightloss within 3 weeks: 5kg.
After 6 weeks we moved into the kitchen, where we cooked (certainly), slept, lived, played, did the homework (Noah went to school), loved (not so much):
That’s gonna happen next: Go to Japan in 3 weeks. Grab my hammer and start. This:
See the ongoing process:
It required action. The rain came into the roof. The energy consumption was too high.
The idea was to keep the appeal of this 1929 Siedlungshaus. With limited interventions get out as much as possible but damage the look and feel of the house as little as possible. E.g. one of the main measures was to keep the original Kastenfenster in the house. No real trade-off to the energy saving ambitions.
One of the main targets was to create additional space for additional family members. This was achieved by building a dormer/gaupe in the roof. Definitely a serious intervention in the old structure, but gaining another 40m2 existing surface area which became inhabitable.
We also have a KU_RI_HA_MA house, by the way. Same syllables, our 8 year old mentioned.
Equipped with a lot (!) of experience in renovating japanese houses, the third one was the oldest house. Situated in Makuhari/Chiba it required again to move there and while working on the construction inhabit the house at the same time.
So we went back to the roots.
The second house in greater Tokyo: Yokohama.
Die Idee, nachhaltig. Abbruchreifen Häusern neues Leben einhauchen.
Ofuro is a central element of Japanese culture. The execution of the bathroom in the Yokohama house should reflect this appreciation. The bathroom became THE element in the open maisonette space of this apartment.
Allgemein, Arbeiten, Architecture
The place, was such a romantic corner. It was stunning. At a time when I hadn’t realized that romantic in Europe and romantic in Japan is a very different thing… not even that there was no road to the house changed my mind. It was (european) romantic.
And so I started. The need of renovation was undeniable. This wasn‘t a house you could live in while working on it. So I started commuting every day Yokusuka Yokohama, back and forth back and forth.
Everything sounded so easy. It was a naiv plan. Just like kids think of something. You dream it. And then you think it will come true. Of course.
And it happened. It just happened. As I had it written down in my tiny sketch book:
Buy a house.
In Japan.
Renovate it.
And rent it out.
