Skyward house, Uenohra, Japan by Kazuhiko Kishimoto.

Photos: Hiroshi Ueda.

Set close to the scared Mount Fuji in Japan is the Skyward house designed by Kazuhiko Kishimoto.

The cabin is a simple affair from the exterior. Clad in red cedar and glazing it looks modest in the steeply sloping topography of its site. That is the way it is designed to be, completely subservient to its surroundings.

Yet inside, this house has two characters: the simplicity of the timber cabin and the white cubic volumes of a Modernist house. The latter feels slightly displaced.

These two characters play-off well against one another and read as the white, clean, pure inner sanctum of the natural, warm, cabin of the mountains. Both sit well in the backdrop of the forested slopes.

It will be interesting to see how the house feels in winter under heavy snow. When the landscape has turned white it will resonate more strongly with the white interiors. At that moment it may well be that the timber clad parts of the cabin feel imported.

Gratitude to Spoon and Tamago.