In designing the home, a timber-clad structure that arrays spaces along a single corridor, the firm broke with convention, namely the modern Japanese vernacular and its svelte white boxes. Like leaves on a branch, all of the communal and private spaces, including the kitchen and living area, are distributed along the meandering hallway. The corridor swells and shrinks to accomodate cleverly built-in components such as benches and nooks for studying, while sliding doors at the entrances of a few rooms save space and offer privacy.
FujiwaraMuro Architects are skilled at organizing small spaces while maintaining the open-concept and light-filled characteristics typical of modern mega-homes. For a polyhedral residence in Matsubara, the firm devised a plan that layered the kitchen, dining and living spaces in the middle, sandwiching them between the private nooks and activity-specific areas, including the play and music room. For another project, in Minoh, they devised two intersecting volumes that twist on each other; rooms are organized around a central living room and there is no clear-cut front facade.