g_LDK

The possibility of renting a house.

The city home is becoming more and more cramped, and we don’t mean cramped only in terms of size. The variety of activities we can do at home is also becoming smaller. During a rainy day for example one might want to repair a bicycle, prepare pickled vegetables or take a shot at fixing up a big barrel of miso. We think that people subconsciously limit what we want to do at home, given the conventional home typologies. Because we wish to be able to do more in our homes, we proposed this project. It was a challenging project, as the common understanding is that to realize a detached house for rent in the heart of Tokyo is close to impossible, so we are grateful for the open-mindedness of our client.

The main feature of the two houses we designed is a large “doma”. Literally “soil space”, this is a common feature of the traditional Japanese house, where a variety of household tasks were performed by the family. It is a kind of extension of the outside ground within the house. That is what the “g” in g_LDK stands for – “ground”. While LDK is a common real-estate abbreviation meaning Living, Dining, Kitchen. We were wondering what kind of life will emerge, if you put a “g” Infront a traditional LDK. The doma can be either connected to the garden or closed off, while the living room is directly communicating with the doma. If our idea to live “on the ground” in the city and the imagination of the people living in this space click, this could become a really nice home.