Shiny White Box

This project is an elderly house prepared by the client to support her mother. Since the elder has a strong nostalgic feeling with Japanese-style building where they had lived before, the client requested a white and simple modern style building. In this project, the design team combines those two design elements by changing the pattern, materials, and colors. Meanwhile, the design team solved the windy characteristics of the site and the humid and cold weather problems, creating a harmony and comfort. The design team removed one wall from the original bedroom and replaced it with a movable aluminum frame glass sliding door to improve indoor daylight, and giving a better access to see the landscape view outside. It also solved the humidity and cold condition problems of the house, and makes this room into Japanese-style room as the client’s mother wanted. When necessary, this room can turn into a private multifunctional room by pull down the hidden roller blinds. Open space style Tatami room enhances the visual sense and interaction with the public area. Although the entire space is basically white, variety of materials are actually used and appropriate lighting are applied, which brings out the layers of different textures. To present the simple-color area as a more three-dimensional outline, the design team use materials to create the lines with visual extension effects. For example, artificial stone lines are used on the entrance hallway wall to correspond to the stone-shaped door frames of the TV wall and the entrance of the room. This also matches with the display platform of the island dining area and sofa back cabinet on the other side. Moreover, the originally closed layout was turned into the Japanese-style room as an open area. This not merely improves the quality of the space, but also creates a more flexible usage pattern, which eventually becomes a nice view and forms a graceful and shining spiritual habitat.