TORAFU ARCHITECTS

For the opening of IT company TerraSky's satellite office in Joetsu, Niigata, we renovated a typical snow country townhouse as part of a regional revitalization and development initiative.

We sought to create a space exhibiting a connection with the region by bringing together more than 100-year-old historic townhouse culture and a state-of-the-art enterprise. We endeavored to create a space that opens the office to a variety of uses by making the best use of the existing snow-shed eaves called gangi, the vaulted ceiling with a skylight, the contiguous room and walkway, as well as the rear garden. Passed the entrance is an event space acting as a point of contact with the locality. Behind it is a kitchen space that communicates with a relaxing space featuring a traditional low table over a recessed floor known as a hori-gotatsu, from which the rear garden can be seen through what is called a snow viewing sliding paper door. Utilizing the townhouse's depth to our advantage, we created a spatial gradation from the public to the private sphere by gradually raising the floor level leading to the second floor office and meeting space.

The resulting space makes room to accept both the old and the new by allowing dated and modern parts to coexist while maintaining contrast, as can be seen with the old beams reinforced by grafting and the polycarbonate fittings incorporating shoji muntins.