Keyhole house

Project Info

Keyhole house | EASTERN design office

Words by mooponto Staff

July 29, 2013

The facade of this house has the shape of a keyhole.

A key to open “my house”, which is standing along a narrow street of a crowded town, is designed as a key itself on the facade of this house. A house can be called a key, which will open up your life happily. Such a small key, this house is a key!

Keyhole house is located in Kyoto, Japan. It is a small house for four people and two cats. It has only 100 square meters of floor space.

It is standing alone in the corner of a small parking lot like a table left behind at the seaside.

• The facade is marked by a window shaped like a key.
• Mortar with sumi ink is applied to the exterior wall.
• Simple color coding. Red and purple are used as an accent.
• The triangle roof.
• Random arrangement of small windows.
• The edge to make the shape of this house clearer.

There is a thin steel eave that is fixed to the facade of this house as if it is floating, and a key-shaped slit like a “picture”, crossing over the eave. A red wine-colored door. These are laid out like a beautiful pattern designed on a jewel box.

You sometimes will see a cat lying by the window at this house. You wonder what is she watching…

Do you still have a naive heart with a key to open this house?

Tags: #Koichi Torimura#Minimalism#Tatami

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