Kidosaki House

Tadao Ando – Tokyo Japan, 1985-1986

This is a house for three families, for husband, wife and their respective parents. The program included a project that would allow the three families to live together, while preserving the privacy of each family. The whole project consists of a cube, 12 meters per side, in the center of the ground and a curved wall in front of the entrance.
The blind wall of the front facade follows the profile of the street, curving inwards to introduce you to the entrance of the house. A space that has two stairs, one up to the second floor "home" and the second at the bottom level of the garden, through which you get access to the other two floors. This internal courtyard helps maintain the independence of each living space.

The three-storey building is based on a square grid, the intention was to create complex spaces within a simple composition. In this residence the space develops around the courtyard.
Ando takes the idea of ​​the courtyard from traditional Japanese terraced houses but, using concrete, develops multilevel courtyards, something that cannot be achieved in wooden architecture.
These courtyards are spaces for introducing nature into the three families and guaranteeing their families their privacy.

The rooms overlook the courtyards, but always with different windows, low windows and full-height windows, they are used in combination so that people in different rooms never find themselves looking directly.
Ando organizes the windows symmetrically and clearly establishes the frontality; also takes into consideration the ventilation in the design of the door.
With double sliding windows, use hidden bezels to solve the problem of both design and functionality.
The trees, together with the vines and shrubs planted in the gardens and scattered terraces, create a landscape that responds to the seasons and provide a natural background for everyday life.