4 x 4 House

Tadao Ando – Four by Four House, Tarumi-ku, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan, 2003

The first house was built following a competition organized by a magazine that eventually introduced the famous architect, Tadao Ando, ​​to the client. A decisive factor in the project was the Hanshin earthquake that caused terrible devastation in the area. An unusual location, on a narrow and chaotic strip of land very close to the epicenter of the earthquake of August 17, 1995. The owner willing to follow his architect's idea, allowed Ando to convert the site into an innovative house, silently remembering the great earthquake.
Once the construction was completed, another client asked Tadao Ando for a similar house on a nearby plot of land. With this commission, the architect was able to complete his original idea of ​​two houses, although without the communication between them that he had imagined, but using different materials, reinforced concrete for the first and wood for the second.

Tadao Ando uses geometric bases for his projects: squares, circles, triangles and rectangles. He always tries to achieve balance between the building and the natural environment.
For Ando it is really important that the people who occupy his buildings have a spiritual and intellectual experience; like reading a poem or listening to music in a calm and strong environment. In this case, the concept is reflected in the displaced cube located at the highest level, which connects the individual to the landscape. “… I try to use the forces in a space to restore the unity between the house and nature …” (Tadao Ando).

By 4 x 4 it is meant that on each of the 4 floors above ground a distinct function is developed, that is, the distribution of the rooms is not planimetric but vertical, 4 floors for 4 rooms.: beyond the basement storage room we have, the entrance and service area on the ground floor, a bedroom on the first floor, the study on the second and on the top floor, a kitchen with dining room and living room that forms the focal point of the house. This final level is a cube with a floor to ceiling glass window on the south-east side that towers over the water like a giant square telescopic lens to capture the views.