Japanese architecture firm Gosize has combined an office with a private residence set on a stone base in Nishinomiya, Japan. The building, named F Residence, has been designed as the architect's own office and private residence with dark-colored platte and natural materials. 

Situated in a beautiful natural setting selected as one of Japan’s top one hundred sited for viewing cherry blossoms, the building’s exterior features a natural stone base intended to blend in with the environment.

Covering a total of 61-square-metre area, the architect wanted to reflect a distinctive Japanese aesthetic that favors natural materials and finds beauty in simplicity, the design emphasizes plainness and blank spaces in the interior. 

"Because the boundary between these interior spaces and the outside world is ambiguous, a wealth of connections and depths arise, resulting in a high-quality living and working environment that leaves lingering impressions," said Gosize.

Image © Nacasa & Partners

The architect created a distinctive space, called The doma, a tiled area on the first floor that can be walked on without removing shoes, has a double-height ceiling and opens inward onto a private courtyard and water feature where subtle seasonal changes in the plants and the sound of water prompt a keen awareness of time. 

"The spaces become increasingly open to the outside world as they move upwards, offering a chance to come into sync with nature and open oneself to the surrounding landscape," continued the firm.

According to the architect, this residence and office will serve as a place to reconnect with the nature-based wisdom and spiritual culture their ancestors have passed down to them, as well as to quietly reexamine his own life. All concrete interior space acts also as the furnitures, fixtures and other living elements that become part of the house as a continuous flow. 

Image © Nacasa & Partners

Image © Nacasa & Partners

All images © Akiyoshi Fukuzawa unless otherwise stated. 

> via Gosize