Just a snowball’s throw from Hirafu – at the foot of Mt Yotei on a 10-hectare property bordering the Shiribetsu River – this house is truly a home for all seasons.
Built for a family to live in year round, it was designed to capture Yotei, the ski hill, and its surrounds. “The concept was to blend in with the surrounding shirakaba (silver birch) trees,” says its owner, an Australian who has lived in Niseko for 15 years. “We wanted large opening windows and a deck wrapping around the house to merge the inside-outside experience. In summer it’s truly beautiful. ”
The interior uses a combination of recycled Japanese timbers and Australian eucalypts – exotic hardwood that gave the local builders’ saw blades a work out like they’d never seen before.
”Historical local timber was rescued from a decrepit tea house built during Hokkaido's herring-trade boom about 120 years ago
Sandstone blocks were also salvaged from old warehouses in nearby Otaru and Yoichi and used both inside and outside.
Architect Riccardo Tossani says the surrounding landscape inspired the design. “Reflecting the geometries of indigenous Silver Birch forests, the deep colonnades provide shelter from the heavy snow in winter, and shade from the summer sun, creating an all-season ‘outdoor room’ from which to enjoy the exquisite landscape. Elevating the residence above the deep winter snows, the deeply cantilevered, wrap-around verandahs allow the building to ‘float’ above site.”
This article appeared in Powderlife 2013
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