K Villa by Katsufumi Kubota is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 Praemium A' Design Award Aeneum in Architectura Competition Category.

AesArchitectura· 2022

K Villa

by Katsufumi Kubota

Client: Kubota Architect Atelier

Praemium A' Design Award Aeneum Winner in Architectura Category

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Verified Award Winner

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The Design

About K Villa

K est villa in Nasu, Tochigi, in Iaponia sita. Pavimenta, parietes et tecta tamquam plana tenuia separata potius quam moles coniunctae tractantur. Columnae graciles nonaginta millimetrorum diametro laminas ex cemento armato sustinent, ita ut structura levis appareat. Pars inferior cuiusque laminae fastigatae speculo ex chalybe inoxidabili perficitur, quod regionem circumiacentem reflectit. Divisiones internae ad minimum redactae sunt, ita ut conclavia inter se confluant. Consilium adnititur ut vita cotidiana cum natura domum circumdante coniungatur.

The Recognition

About the Praemium A' Design Award Aeneum

K Villa victor est Praemii A' Design Award Aeneum, honoris multum aestimati formis egregiis, creandi ingenio, sollertia et acumine insignibus dati. Victores Aenei opera perita et mire creandi sunt, quae experientiam, imaginationem et solertiam auctorum suorum confirmant. Exspectatur K Villa rem multum aestimatam, admiratam et carissimam, notabiliter professionalem et novam fore. Haec forma Aeneo victa optimas consuetudines artis, scientiae, formandi rationis et technologiae amplectitur et in cura minutiarum excellit. K Villa necessitates egregie explet, cupiditates tangit, sensus capit et curiositatem allicit.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: The floors,walls,and roofs are refined as two-dimensional surfaces to the extreme.They are not joined together but are kept as separate components,either underground,above ground,or in the air where they need to be,composing the architecture.The overlapping and shifting of the abstract slabs lose their thickness and mass and seem to float,creating a space with ambiguous divisions where all areas converge into a loosely connected architecture.The architecture that revives connection erases the boundaries between the planar and sterical,inside and the outside,and between various realms.Thus the mind fuses with nature,and the mind integrated into the infinitely expanding nature leads to the essential richness and boundless freedom.This architecture is K Villa.
Dimensions & Packaging: Site area 517.12 m2 Building area 105.16m2 Total floor area 95.69m2
Tags: Japan, Villa, Minimal, Modanism, Concrete
Production Technology: reinforced concrete
Design Challenge: The distance from the office to the site was about 1,000 km, and the coronavirus raged during the construction, so it was not easy to supervise the site. I think that supporting the roof with 90Φ thin pillars in Japan, which is an earthquake-prone country, will be the limit.
Research: We are meant to coexist with the infinite expanse of nature.However,buildings are on the contrary and have been developed to separate the mind and from nature an much as possible.Thus when a building intervenes between the mind and nature,it severs the connection between the two,reinforces isolation,and slowly grows the darkness and coldness in the mind.Without realizing it,the mind creaks and becomes crooked.K Villa creates an architecture that overturns this process.
Inspiration: The pressures of relating with others,however small and common they may be,cause our hearts to close,stagnate and obscure without our knowing.Our desires to be liberated from these pressures push us to update ourselves through superficial entertainment and joy and yet,our hearts remain clenched still,slowly eating away our energy to live.In order to reverse and break away from this flow,we must connect our hearts to an infinitely freer power,and to inspire a breath of new life.K Villa we create here will be planned so that it functions as a medium that induces response and fosters a relationship between both sides.
Project Duration: Design from 2015 to 2019 Construction from 2019 to 2020. Location: Nasu,Tochigi,Japan
Operation Flow: Completed without joining thin pillars with only 90Φ and slabs on the floor, walls, and roof, this K Villa gently connects to the outside nature, and attempts to transfer nature on the back of the tapered slab with a stainless mirror surface.
Team Members: Katsufumi Kubota, Kazuya Toizaki, Kazu Kubota, Masayuki Kubota,Naoya Yuda
Image Credits: Katsu Tanaka