project: villa cocoro
location: shizuoka
type of use: villa
status: completed
credit:
architect: kentaro kimizuka/kimizuka architects
statutory application: atelier m+k
photo: jimmy cohrssen, kentaro kimizuka
brief description:
Villa cocoro is the only villa standing on a hill top of 5,000sqm private garden in the middle of nowhere. It was originally an old farm house which was relocated from elsewhere and reassembled imcompletely.
To convert the farm house skelton into the new villa, six distinctive areas were chosen from among the existing frameworks first, then being recharacterised by contrastive but correlative design elements, materials, and finishes. All the areas are linked with each other to provide the programmed sequence for guests.
This project also deals with how to coexist with old stocks that would otherwise be abolished. While the traditional frames are left as they were as much as possible, simple new elements with the deliberate texture and colour of the finishes softens the contrast between old and new. The obscuring of the borders between past, present and even future without replicating traditional styles results in a building that exists continuously in the present tense.