I'm home

An architect, Kiyoshi Seike handled many post-war residences which were historically remarkable in Japanese modern architecture. While western culture was flooding in and exerting huge influence on the lifestyle of Japanese people, he let Japanese formal beauty (such as wooden beams, pillars, tatami and paper screens) sublime as a modern architecture and kept proposing the importance of "placement(Shitsurae)" which conforms to occasions, seasons and to the change of lifestyle.
Seike had completed his own private residence in 1954, called "Seike House I". This house has a 4m long window facing the garden which he himself called "living-garden" and when that window is completely opened, the indoor and the outside will unify and become an open space.
For the room of only 50m2 space, he didn't establish any partitions and he divided the living room and the Bedroom by a curtain. By this, he made the layout as open as possible. In that house, he had enjoyed an easygoing life with his wife and four children for 16 years. This house became a residence prototype which makes one wonder what is really a fulfilling life by minimizing the functions.
However, as his children grew older, some inconveniences arose and he ended up rebuilding his parents' wooden adjoining house. This is the "Seike House II" completed in 1970. This residence employing a mixed structure, has a big space of 190m2, however, the human scale concept of living together with a family under the same roof is still dominant, i.e.; his particular philosophy towards the residence is still expressed just like in "Seike House I". He made wide flange(H-shaped) steel beam exposed and combined different materials such as double-glazed glass(this is highly durable as thin glass is put on top of 6~7mm thick glass) and Yakiita (this is Japanese specific way of avoiding erosion by carbonization. Process is to burn the surface of wooden plate). His approach is visible everywhere as he constantly employed new materials and technology.
He said, "The residence is not a 'house' but has to be a 'home'." If there's no family with whom you can feel close to, a fulfilling lifestyle cannot be born. Seike kept stressing on the importance of these words throughout his life. His perspective which significantly takes the bonding within family is important as one human-being, before being an architect, is prominent.

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