Japanese architect Cohta Asano has designed an unusual house in the city of Fukushima. The building takes the form of several cubic volumes, which interlock and stack above one another to create a complex profile and massing. The structure’s complexity is also reflected in the home’s interior spaces. The project is both personally and symbolically significant to the architect, as Fukushima was recently the site of a nuclear disaster that razed much of the area and displaced many of its residents. The plot of land on which the new house rests has been in the architect?s family for many years, but the original home was completely destroyed in a blaze that engulfed the site about six months after the disaster. This new construction, then, is essentially a clean slate for the architect, allowing him to bring his vision of an almost post-apocalyptic dwelling to life.
The building is composed of nine individual cubes of different sizes and volumes that overlap, interlock, and project out of each other, forming an unorthodox arrangement in terms of plan, section, and elevation. The result of this arrangement is a singular edifice that looks almost as if it has been made from building blocks and bears no relationship to the other houses in the area. The new house is not only experimental, but it’s also appropriate in the sense that it’s located in a place which bears little resemblance to its former self. Adorned in light grey wooden slats and irregular wi...