Steel Frame House With Double-height Ceiling, Emphasizes the Connection of In and Out

Architects: Soar Design Studio Area: 760 m² Year: 2021 Photographs: Hey! Cheese

A stand-alone in the mountains, it’s a 4-floor building for 4, from B1 to 3 floors. Aside from the main house, a small hut, made of steel and yakisugi, is for yoga and tea.

Elevated, it becomes part of nature and the tree. The concept of the overall design is based on the impression of a “mountain”, making the space and activities grow organically like the free spreading nature of trees.

Taking advantage of the various offset levels of floor heights and vertical extension of the space,

we created an interior spatial experience reflective of mountain climbing, where the scenery changes with each turn and corner, thereby changing the mood as you travel through the interior space.

This spatial experience stimulates a more unimagined living style. For instance, the vertical void in the public area on the first and second floors is generated from a double-height ceiling, which creates a vertical gathering space that extends upward like a big tree.

Combining with the tabletops, the quarter spiral staircase, platform corridors, and treehouses, this spatial integration can develop an interesting life experience with the vertical development of the space.

This allows each family member the option of solitary and communal spaces, thereby developing a more diverse mode of joint living,

and being able to appreciate the changes in mountain scenery from different heights and angles, deepening the connection with nature.

Embracing the enclosing mountain view, the design emphasizes the connection of in and out, using different vertical and converging spaces to break the horizontal lifestyle, inserting a more comprehensive sense of nature.

The design focuses on the connection of two levels, linking the interior, residents, and the outdoor to better merge the view into daily life while creating a more fluid and diverse space to facilitate human connections.

We start from outside of the base to create a space resembling trees, that each space extends like a branch, growing upward, outward and yet staying interconnected.

The vertical axis breaks the flat spatial design, while split-level platforms, shared, middle and corner break the stratified style of the duplex building.

With a variety of holes, gaps, and intermediary spaces, different forms of communication are created, which in turn leads to various behaviors.

In both horizontal and vertical spaces, the sense of stability and privacy is enabled. A huge area of penetrating materials blends the in and out for a wider view, while various frames create the experience of as-if outside.