Earth House near Osaka
- Jakob Schoof
Large two- to three-storey houses on small plots, their narrow gardens often hidden behind tall walls, on streets lined by low trees: this image typifies the extensive areas of single-family homes in Ikeda, a suburb that lies to the north of the centre of Osaka. There is, in fact, no shortage of greenery here, but the client of Tomohiro Hata's Earth House wanted more contact with nature and a building that would have a long life instead of - as is so often the case in Japan - being demolished long before the end of its technical life and replaced by a new building.
