住めば都

As part of Naoko and I’s efforts to get competing plans so we can make the best decision for building the house, we visiting Atelier Labyrinth Architects in an office at Kita Akabane. The architect’s actual house is just a few blocks from here, and we had long maintained the possibility of talking to the architect when the house project became more of a reality. We went to the house yesterday (thinking the architect’s office was there as well, the website intimated as much) but was told we needed to meet with him at the Kita Akabane office. So we did that today.

It was just an initial exploratory meeting, but both Naoko and I had a very positive vibe about the lead architect (芳賀 敏夫 - HAGA Toshio). I think he appreciated our “predicament” in terms of the division of the space, and seemed to be sensible with respect to how necessary half of the second floor was to the in-laws. He also had some interesting initial ideas about how to create the space (kitchen and bath on 3rd floor, for starters). He was informative about some of the issues involving inspection and city bureaucracy (it is easier from inspection pov not to have a loan, for example). And while perhaps a bit superficial on my part, I appreciated that he seemed rather immersed in architecture and its traditions (books on Richard Meier, Luis Barragan, FLW, for example, were prominent on his overloaded bookshelves). I also was impressed that he wanted to know exactly where the new land is, so that he can visit it in person, making a point to mention that it was an important part of the process.

He’s been featured at least twice on television programs, and gave us videos to look at of these. And he wants to meet the mother-in-law sooner than later. As he explained it, it is often the case that the young couple comes to him wanting such and such a house, but that one hits a wall when one starts to talk with the in-laws. So naturally he doesn’t want to get too far involved in the project without meeting at least okaasan.

All in all, very positive and energizing. However, somewhat predictably, the in-laws don’t seem to be overly impressed by images of past houses and the videos, and made some mention (I wasn’t around, this is via Naoko) that the houses were “重厚じゃない” (juukou ja nai, or not stately enough). I think it will be an uphill battle to sway them from anything other than Shimokawa, which doesn’t make me feel very positive about all this, other considerations aside.

After our second visit to Shimokawa Architect, it came out that mother-in-law is expecting to have access to the second floor to hang laundry and futons, and for her second daughter to use the washitsu when she visits. This had been mentioned before by Naoko a few months ago, and I had been adamant that I wasn’t going to accept that. I said the same this time.

This then led the m-i-l to want half of the second floor outright, which is not how the current plan is drawn up (to say nothing of the fact that it has always been envisioned that we would have the 2nd and 3rd floors). So this led to a big discussion, argument, what have you. As it stands now, they want 1.5 floors, and want Shimokawa Architect to re-do his plan for this, and want us to look at other architects.

On Saturday (May 6th) we went back to Shimokawa Architect. We had met with him the week before to go over a plan he created for the in-laws. He had made changes to the plan based on that meeting. For us, that meant looking at the washitsu (adding a tokonoma, for example), and seeing about the possibility of having the laundry room double as a darkroom (i.e. be able to use it as such with minimal effort). Instead of creating a multi-purpose darkroom, however, he actually created a separate room. All well and good, but this then created a problem with doors and Naoko and I were a bit surprised that he hadn’t thought this out so well.

We (meaning I) also asked him some general type questions about construction (hybrid post-and-beam and 2×4), time frame, oversight of builders, etc. All in all a generally positive meeting, with a design I could live with. I think in terms of attention to detail, and documenting the process, they’re very impressive. On the other hand, I’m not sure how creative he is, in fact. His own house, to my (untutored) eye, is not very impressive. It seems fairly run of the mill. So I have lingering doubts about him….

However…. (see next post)