Located on the outskirts of Hirafu, on the quiet country road that leads over the Shiribetsu River past the old Hirafu station, Gen-Myo offers a nature-bound retreat for its Singaporean, London-based owners.
“We’re now at the age where sore knees and muscles after skiing are sadly quite the norm, and lugging heavy suitcases up and down narrow stairs has become challenging,” they said.
”So we decided we wanted a single-storey place in tune with the landscape and surrounding nature, where there is a seamless connection between inside and outside
“We also wanted a long engawa-style deck (Japanese edging strip) and lots of floor-to-ceiling windows.”
Keith Rodgers of project design and management firm Taiga said synchronistically the landscape informed the macro design of the 288 sqm building’s form.
“There was a natural bench that tucked into the hillside, with a natural spring on the property creating a spring-fed pond below,” Rodgers says. “Even prior to meeting the owners, I had walked the site numerous times and had this vision of a home following the bench along the contour of the land, making use of the natural beauty of the slope right behind.”
After a robust and detailed conversation on the design, including Taiga’s idea to feature the open rafters, the core concepts were crystallised into a tight brief to Sapporo architect Tsukasa Daida.
As becomes obvious when seen from above, the house is essentially three blocks, connected by bridges, that curve under the base of the hillside. The first block is the garage, the middle block houses the living spaces, and the farthest wing the bedrooms. Alternating roof forms create rhythm and emphasize the strong connection to the site.
“We saw potential in building on the elevated land bench,” says the owner, “and thought the protective slope that backed it could be a wonderful and natural green wall in summer. The freshwater spring flowing at the edge of the land was also very attractive, and also good feng shui.”
The design was influenced by traditional Japanese “hiraya” – a single story ranch – with its engawa-inspired deck celebrating the connection between indoors and outdoors, enhanced by the use of natural materials including cedar wall cladding both inside and out. The end result is a modern, international interpretation of a traditional style, born out of a design collaboration between Japanese architects, a Canadian project manager and Southeast Asian owners.
“After getting a sense of what we wanted, Daida-san came up with a draft design for a single-storey house spanning nearly the entire length of the elevated land bench,” the owner says. “From there we all tinkered around with the design – the slant of the roof, the size and layout of the rooms, the orientation of the main blocks of the building, then moving on to choose the materials and finer details. It was all very collaborative with people throwing ideas around and fine tuning from there.”
”The home’s name was inspired by the calligraphic artwork of 89-year old local artist Yoko Arano, which is featured in the genkan entrance
“Names are important, and we wanted a meaningful Japanese name that had a connection with the land and the house,” says the owner. “We found half of the name in the calligraphic work of Arano-sensei, which we fell in love with during our last visit to Niseko before the pandemic began. The kanji we were particularly drawn to was ‘myo’ (妙), an ancient character that embodies many meanings, including ideas like mystery, wonder, and subtle excellence.
This article appeared in Powderlife 2023
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