Project Name: HOUSE F

Location: Nagareyama, Japan

Architecture Firm: KamakuraStudio

Lead Architects: Keisuke Fukui, Keisuke Morikawa

Design Team: Keisuke Fukui

Technical Team: Keisuke Morikawa

Area: 168㎡

Completion Year: 2022

Photography: Koji Fujii (Torel), Shinkenchiku-sha, Keisuke Fukui (KamakuraStudio)

Feature：

Project - Japanese architecture firm KamakuraStudio has designed a hybrid home-office in Japan that reimagines community engagement through thoughtful architectural intervention, challenging the conventional boundaries between private and public spaces.

Named House F, the 168-square-metre building serves as both the architect's residence and studio, with its ground floor deliberately designed as a fluid, community-oriented space that invites casual neighborhood interaction. The project responds to the unique context of its location – a relatively new residential area where 75 percent of residents have moved in within the last decade.

The most striking feature of the design is its innovative approach to indoor-outdoor connectivity, achieved through a seamless treatment of materials, architectural elements, and floor levels. This continuity is further enhanced by a distinctive diagonal opening that cuts through the building's upper levels, allowing southern light to penetrate while creating space for an ambitious vertical garden.

What sets House F apart is its integration of "micro-interventions" – small, thoughtful design decisions that foster community engagement. The ground floor transforms fluidly between various functions: a café where extra coffee is shared with neighbors, an impromptu library filled with community-donated books, and an occasional cinema space complete with a projector.

The building's facade is particularly noteworthy for its three-dimensional planting strategy, which builds upon an existing neighborhood "plant-sharing network." This green element creates a forest-like atmosphere through alternating terraces and interior rooms in both plan and section.

Since its completion in 2022, House F has become a catalyst for community interaction, hosting various events from workshops to film screenings. The project demonstrates how architecture can serve as a tool for social cohesion, offering a fresh perspective on sustainable community building in the face of Japan's aging society and population decline.

Design Team - Founded in 2016, KamakuraStudio is an emerging Japanese architectural practice that has rapidly established itself as a significant voice in contemporary Japanese architecture. Led by co-principals Keisuke Fukui and Keisuke Morikawa, both graduates of Nihon University's Department of Architecture, the firm operates from their base in Nagareyama City, Chiba Prefecture.

The practice's portfolio spans an impressive range of typologies, from single-family residences and multi-unit housing to commercial facilities and public institutions. Their contextual approach to architecture is characterized by a sophisticated understanding of spatial hierarchy and programmatic flexibility, particularly evident in their integration of public and private realms.

KamakuraStudio's design philosophy centers on what they term "maximizing connections" - a methodology that carefully considers the intersection of built form with social infrastructure. This is exemplified in their award-winning HOUSE F project, where the traditional boundaries between residential and community spaces are thoughtfully dissolved.

Under the leadership of Fukui, who previously worked at NAP Architects, and Morikawa, whose experience includes Kume Sekkei and Kitagawara Atsushi Architecture & Urban Design Institute, the firm has developed a distinctive approach to contemporary Japanese architecture that emphasizes social sustainability and community engagement through architectural intervention.