Suzuki House, an Asymmetric Building

‘A house as a large family room suspended in the city. A house with a child’s room suspended within. A house with two legs and a usable roof. A house glanced by a passing ninja.’ This is how the Australian architectural firm Bolles + Wilson describe Suzuki House on their website.

Built in Tokyo between 1990 and 1993, this house was designed and created for Japanese chemist Akira Suzuki, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2010. As the site allocated to it is situated at an angle to a plot of land, the architects at Bolles + Wilson had to make maximum use of the surface area in order to create a comfortable home for the four occupants and their dog. 

Contrasting windows

Built using rough concrete, not unlike Tadao Ando’s creations, Suzuki House is spread over five levels with a staircase in the centre that divides up each room. Its originality is visible on the side of the façade, where the windows are laid out in an irregular arrangement and all are different shapes: some thin and horizontal and others that look a little like portholes. The largest is situated in the middle of the building and serves as a light well that allows the room to become brighter in spite of the limited number of openings onto the outside. 

Suzuki House was awarded the Gold Medal by the Japanese Architects Institute in 1994.

Suzuki House (1993), Tokyo, a house designed by architectural firm Bolles + Wilson.