be fun design: gulliver house

‘gulliver house’ by be-fun design in nerima, tokyo, japan all images courtesy be-fun design image © hiroyuki hirai

japanese architects be-fun design has shared with us images of ‘gulliver house’, a multi-unit housing project in a quiet residential area of tokyo, japan. much like the tale of gulliver’s travels in which the protagonist finds himself in a land of tiny people, the design manipulates the height and presence of the ceiling within the area’s building code to playfully skew the sense and scale of space.

interior view image © hiroyuki hirai

situated on a site surrounded by a number of low-lying wooden houses, the two-storey building sits deep on the plot to create an outdoor parking space to the front. the street facade is read as two parts with one half of the elevation extruding to the east. finished in a dark and textured skin, the monolithic volume obtains a graphic profile with a dramatically pitched roof line. an elevated strip of transparency visually breaks up the solid makeup of the multi-unit dwelling.

lowered ceiling height by window image © hiroyuki hirai

accommodating seven units within, the design focuses on delegating appropriate spatial volumes for each apartment while abiding by the local code which restricts the building height to 10 meters. by inserting partial levels in an offset manner, separation is created between different zones of the units. the resulting ceiling height of 1.3 meters changes not only the impression of the space but also the user type, catering to children as a designated play area. by tightly stacking the domestic programs, the design seeks to inject a new dimension and plane within the conventional home.

kitchen image © hiroyuki hirai