“Grass Roof House”
 
This house has elevated ground as its rooftop.
There, plants will grow, birds will come by and people will get together.
There, you find both a life on the ground and a life in midair.
This is a place that holds the air, absorbs lights, embeds sounds, and embraces people and objects.
Dusts around the body, grass under the feet, axis of the earth.
Stars up in the sky.
Seasons that pass by, mornings, middays, nights or each moments; none of these will be the same again.
 
The land lot is 72 square meters large.
It is located next to a park, almost surrounded by it and it’s on the corner – the lot itself is of a moderate size and it’s in a fortunate location.
We had not intended to plant grass on the roof at the beginning of the project.
We were to make it a simple and a rational house with no peculiarities because the client had a limited budget.
“I’m not planning anything extraordinary.” I said to the client trying to reassure him.
“Well, we can accept some of that.” this was his answer, which led the project to a whole different direction.
While the client and the architect were busy making numerous ideas and possibilities, the client got charmed with an idea of climbing up on the rooftop.
He was not slightly agitated when I announced him that we were going to plant grass on the roof.
This is how we started this Grass Roof House project.
It was easy to manage the house volume considering the budget and the land lot size.
However, the smaller the house is the more difficult the planning became, as one notices significantly more details on human behaviors and body senses.
The Japanese seem to have wisdom of how to make the most of small spaces.
Although there apparently exist limits related to human body size when projecting a space and we soon face these limits as we reduce the volume of dwelling space, we also find new possibilities beyond.
As a consequence it was inevitable to plant grass on the roof, considering the land lot size of 72 square meters.
After overcoming the challenges that this project required, we managed to render to this small house an atmosphere of contemporary ‘nest’ for humans.
 
 
Located in Takamatsu, Kagawa
Completion : Oct. 2016
Use : Exclusive Occupation House
Structure : Wooden / 2 stories
Site Area : 75.74 sq m
Building Area : 45.38 sq m
Total Floor Area : 66.18 sq m
Photo ： Yohei Sasakura