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):

The remaining time I finished as much as I could do. A Living room, a terrace, I installed an oven, I fixed the siding, the roof.

See the ongoing process:

https://www.facebook.com/christoph.wanzel

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.

The size of the house was already impressive: a total of more than 100sqm. So it became subject to another partition. See the section of the final division and learn about the difficulties in it.

We had space to work with and light, which is not standard in densely populated japanese suburban areas. We created two spacious apartments, the yellow and the blue one following our color coding.

Es war einfach 1 Haus. Wir machten 2 draus. Für japanische Verhältnisse immer noch groß.

Platz auf 27m2 und auf 29m2 in 2 Maisonetten.

Eine Verquickung europäischen Denkens mit japanischen Erfordernissen.

Der romantisch abgelegene Winkel bietet überraschend großartigen Fernblick.

Designed, Planned and built from March 2007 till March 2008

The crystal shape turned out to be also a great space saver, which is an asset as the whole apartment comprises of only 27m2.

It’s been hand shaped from scrap. A simple 1:1 mockup helped to make the decision whether to do it or not.

The idea: Low Budget – High…

Quality – Renovation, of an old abandoned house. Nobody wanted it. We took it.

A house aged 30something which would not have been renovated by the japanese construction industry. Just torn down.

It was an average house in the hills south of Tokyo.

We found it because a European gaijin needed some „green“ in front of the window. After months in Asakusa, the historic downtown of Tokyo.

	So we moved in. Very soon I realized this is not exactly the house I want to live in.
	Tearing down the first walls was the easy part.

Eventually the thing needed a concept. As everything in Japan and especially a house is very rectangular I wanted something different. Something refreshing for the eyes of the visitors and the residents of this house. I wanted it „round“. And I wanted the challenge. I should have known …

Reconstruction was based on European thoroughness. Only the main structure remained and basically everything was reinforced including an insulation which Austrians consider as minimum.

Life changed.

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.

The concept was clear from the very beginning. We wanted to rent out the house. The size of almost 60 sqm. and the average apartment size in Tokyo implied a cut thru the house and making 2 out of 1. It became a vertical cut and the apartments became so called “maison” type.

This was the first time that I stripped a house by my own. The walls like tin cans made it possible.

The job itself was the right thing to calm down after 15 years in AD agencies.

And this happened as well: Studiing the object and planning. The outcome:

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.