AR Awards for Emerging Architecture	Commended	December 2007
DATAR	House	Suginami, Tokyo, Japan
Regulations govern Japanese detached houses – oblique lines, plot ratios, boundary isolation.Datar adopted the archetypal primitive hut-like house. Unlike the image of a child’s naive drawing, however, they chose to exaggerate the building’s ghostly silhouette, presenting a mute character. By contrast, internal spaces express an eccentric character in response to client requirements. Scaleless from the outside, accommodation is on three levels, with intricate ramps and steps. With the front door set into a re-entrant porch, space at entrance level is divided by a central kitchen that shifts the axis. With main stair to the left leading to first floor nursery, walking round the kitchen leads up four steps to living space that extends into a slim lightwell, and up into a double-height void bound by the angled walls of the first-floor bathroom. The master bedroom occupies the basement, opening onto the narrow courtyard. R. G. Architect Datar, Tokyo Photographs Takeshi Yamagishi Email otagiri@datar.jp