Press Release
Takaharu Tezuka and Yui Tezuka Is Honored with the Silver A' Design Award for The Pitched Roof House in Architecture, Building and Structure Design
Takaharu Tezuka and Yui Tezuka honored for architecture, building and structure design by the international grand jury of the 2020 - 2021 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 23, 2021 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that The Pitched Roof House by Takaharu Tezuka and Yui Tezuka, designed for Tezuka Architects, has been granted the Silver A' Design Award in the Architecture, Building and Structure Design category. The award was conferred within the 2020 - 2021 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who assessed anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
About the Silver A' Design Award
The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.
About The Pitched Roof House
The Pitched Roof is a single-storey house in Karuizawa, Japan, covered by a very simple pitched roof. Only forty percent of the space under the roof is enclosed, so the boundary between inside and outside remains soft. The cantilevered roof reaches over six meters with a structure just 200 millimeters thick. A folded, L-shaped surface works as a monocoque element and reduces the supports needed. Sliding doors allow the inhabitants to change the character of the living space. The house reinterprets the deep eaves of traditional Japanese architecture.
About Takaharu Tezuka and Yui Tezuka
Tezuka Architects was started in Tokyo, 1994 by Takaharu and Yui Tezuka. Takaharu and Yui Tezuka, themselves, a married couple, infuses the office with a sense of informality and familiarity. Although a relatively small practice, it hosts a multi-national team of Japanese and overseas staff from various countries. Giving this company not only the tenacity and focus but also diverse backgrounds - that are required to tackle design commissions, both locally and internationally. Tezuka Architects fashion themselves as storytellers - developing design projects hand in hand with the Client to create stories meant to ignite life and possibilities.
Award Record
This recognition makes Takaharu Tezuka and Yui Tezuka a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Architecture, Building and Structure Design Award
The A' Architecture Design Award is an international architectural design competition recognizing good architectural designs by best architects worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to architectural design studios, building contractors, structural engineering firms and architecture and design consultants from all countries. Typical entries include skyscrapers, museums, residential buildings, commercial complexes, educational institutions and religious structures. The awarded architectural projects are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/architecture
About A' Design Award & Competition
Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/117210
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/117210
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!117210
- Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/298361
- Further Information from the Laureate: http://www.tezuka-arch.com/english/works/house/kirizuma-no-i
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
###
Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- The Pitched Roof House
- Function
- House
- Category
- Architecture, Building and Structure Design
- Discipline
- Spatial Design
- Industry
- Architecture
- Colors
- Black, Dark Slate Blue, Slate Blue, Midnight Blue and Medium Purple
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Tezuka Architects
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Takaharu Tezuka and Yui Tezuka
- Country
- Japan
- Recognition
- Silver A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2020 - 2021
- Design ID
- #117210
Credits
- Team
- Niitsugumi Co., Ltd., OHNO-JAPAN, BONBOLI Lighting Architect & Associates and GA Yamazaki
- Image Credits
- Photographer Katsuhisa Kida, FOTOTECA, 2009.
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- This is a house located in Karuizawa, Japan with an extremely simple pitched roof. Traditional Japanese houses do not create enclosed environments but instead, form spaces that enable easy transition from the inside to the outside. By forming a blurred boundary, only forty percent of the space under the roof is enclosed within the interior. While the inside is being used primarily by the inhabitants as living spaces, it is the outside that defines it.
- Inspiration
- Deep eaves, as one of the most important Japanese traditional architecture elements in local monsoon climate, are almost extinct in modern houses. It is essential to comprehend the meaning of these traditional elements in the modern setting. With the latest technology, the house seek to reinterpret the deep eave in the context of a humid climate, retain and create more opportunities for these distinctive Japanese qualities to sprout forth in modern architecture.
- Research
- The pitched roof house is trying to reach a certain level of mutability by re-interpreting the traditional elements into modern context. In aiming to heighten qualities of architectural mutability, the work is tied into a long tradition of Japanese vernacular architecture known for its sliding doors, screens, and other boundary-modulating elements, such as deep eaves. These elements not only create the spatial fluidity, but also open the architecture to life-giving elements of sunlight, wind, and humidity, modestly scaled the ubiquitous digital lifestyle with a return of nature.
- Challenge
- In Traditional Japanese Houses, the space under the eaves is often associated with columns. However, these columns serve purely as structural elements to support the cantilevered edges and are not crucial in enclosing the space. Had technology been much more advanced, we would have been able to design without columns years ago. We are now able to achieve the real intricate quality of open spaces in Japanese Architecture - a feat that was not possible for carpenters 400 years ago.
- Realization and Technology
- The cantilevered roof of over 6 meters, pushes the limit of the 200mm thick roof structure. By adopting a folded shape as the main structural element, it minimizes the support needed as compared to having a flat roof, which would require three times more of the support utilized. Like the Japanese papercraft, Origami, the L-shaped surface acts as a monocoque element – not resisting stiff but drooping about 5 centimeters under snow pressure like tree branches in the forest.
- Operation and Interaction
- The house is designed for a well-known Japanese pop songwriter who wanted to create a place where he could disconnect from the pressures of daily life. The space enclosed enables the inhabitants to perform their basic living tasks while open space under the deep eaves allows them to connect to nature and the surroundings. The sliding doors which divide the inside from the outside can be used to realize the shift in ambiance within the living space.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project started in July 2007 and finished in May 2009 in Karuizawa, Japan
- Specifications
- Floor: Single floor Ceiling Height: 2,100 mm Roof Height: 3.446 mm Site Area: 1,059.18 m2 Floor Area: 208.56 m2
- Keywords
- House, Pitched Roof, Cantilevered, Japanese, Deep eaves, Boundary, Wood structure,
