Despite the fact that straight lines and perfect 90-degree angles are not commonly found in nature, we humans almost always build our artificial structures with rectilinear forms. We may have spent millennia huddling in caves, constructing simple huts or finding shelter in other irregularly-shaped domiciles, but with the rise of advanced civilization came an adherence to a simple formula: four vertical walls, a floor, and a roof. Of course, it?s easy to see why this is the case: it makes construction easy and cheap. But in the year 2017, why doesn?t modern architecture think outside the box and take on more complex geometries"

Kochi Architect?s Studio, a firm based in Japan, takes the ordinary grid-based home layout and subverts it by applying additional geometric shapes to the interiors in unexpected ways. Instead of surfaces that are all parallel and perpendicular to each other, this firm?s structures feature angled walls that bisect each other in surprising ways, and this effect is dramatically enhanced by the application of contrasting paint colors to them. The most recent example is “Ana House,” which was completed in 2016.
Located in Japan, Ana House was designed for a young family of four. The architects began with an unusually small plot of land, explaining that Japanese increases in both population and land prices after World War II resulted in high-density urban areas where even tiny building sites come at a premium. They knew they would have t...