YNAS, a local architecture studio in Japan, has recently unveiled a stunning renovation and extension of a traditional timber home in Miyakonojo. The project, named House in Miyakonojo, is a testament to the studio's innovative approach to architecture, focusing on reconnecting the interior with the outdoors. The renovation was designed for a couple who decided to return to the wife's ancestral home in Miyakonojo to live with her father, after raising their children and changing careers.
The original home, built in 1978, had a traditional layout with rooms partitioned by sliding screens and a dark, L-shaped corridor that separated the living area from the kitchen, dining room, and bedroom. YNAS eliminated this corridor and the partition walls, creating a unified living, dining, and kitchen space. The studio's design philosophy revolved around opening up the home's boundaries, removing walls and hedges, and creating an outdoor kitchen space with views of the mountainous skyline.
One of the key design directives was to handle the varying distances between the family and the community. Instead of simply closing off the home to protect privacy, YNAS took a paradoxical approach, demonstrating through design that no physical borders were being created. The studio used timber-framed canopies topped with corrugated metal to shelter engawa spaces alongside the entrance, dining, and living areas to the south and the kitchen to the north. These canopies extend the home's unusually shallow eaves, providing vital shade and allowing the previously under-utilised spaces around its perimeter to become an extension of the interiors.
YNAS redefined the Japanese concept of ambiguous boundaries through floor materials. The kitchen, dining, and eave spaces are continuous mortar doma floors, strengthening the indoor-outdoor connection. Conversely, the living room and father's room utilise tatami mats made from authentic rush – igusa – from Kyushu, allowing the residents to feel a connection to the land even through the soles of their feet. Traditional features were re-introduced into the home's new spaces, including a kamado or wood-fired stove in the outdoor kitchen, an irori or sunken hearth in the indoor kitchen, and a steel wood-fired bath in the wet room.
The firewood for these elements is stored in a low gabion wall made from local rubble, which replaced a hedge at the front of the home to help obscure views from the road into the living room. To the northwest, a new timber-framed storage area is clad in corrugated polycarbonate sheets, fronted by another steel and timber canopy that shelters a parking and outdoor workshop space. The home refresh was accompanied by a strategy to make it 'self-sustaining', including adding solar panels on its roof and a rainwater harvesting system.
YNAS's work on House in Miyakonojo showcases a thoughtful and innovative approach to architecture, focusing on the connection between the interior and the exterior. The studio's use of traditional Japanese materials and features, combined with modern design elements, creates a harmonious and functional living space. The project serves as an inspiration for other architects and designers to explore new ways of reconnecting the built environment with the natural world, and to create spaces that are both aesthetically pleasing and environmentally sustainable.
