Introducing Danchi House | Minimal Residence Placing a Danchi Layout Above a Garage, a custom-built home example by Yoshihiro Yamamoto Architects Associates, a Architect / Design office in 302, Zeniya Honpo Main Building, 14-6 Ishigatsujichō, Tennōji-ku, Osaka

This is a small house sited within a tranquil village. The client, who was born and raised in public housing (danchi), requested that the living environment replicate the conditions of a danchi as closely as possible. Their requirements included a dining kitchen directly connected to the entrance, a multifunctional Japanese-style room adjacent without an intervening corridor, an extremely compact wet area (with a preference for a twin-tub washing machine), and ceiling heights matching those of a danchi. The only deviation was a desire for a spacious garage for hobbies. Within a constrained budget we pared the plan down to danchi-level compactness, combined structural members with finish elements, and minimized material and equipment costs. The result is a garage house with the garage on the first floor and the danchi-like living on the second floor. Although Japanese danchi are sometimes disparagingly called 'rabbit hutches,' for those born and raised in them they embody an ideal of compact, resource-efficient living. This project reaffirmed how the efforts of postwar predecessors who conceived the danchi as a model for collective housing continue to inform occupants' expectations. Use | Single-family residence Structure and scale | Two-storey timber construction Design supervision | Yoshihiro Yamamoto [YYAA] Construction | [Hirota Construction]