Type: Restored machiya
Location: Oume-shi, Tokyo
Method: Traditional Japanese wooden construction
Tsuchikabe walls reinforced by bamboo laths
Total floor area: 66.9 m2
Completed: 2010
Design/construction: Seyseysh

This machiya (wooden townhouses) which was built in the Taisho period in Oume-shi, Tokyo is renovated.
The client’s mother spent her childhood in the house. It was a vacant house for a long time and it was rather damaged.

The base of a pillar and floor were decayed and the whole house was leaning to one side. However, traditional houses built through traditional construction methods was being constructed well for repairing.

A tasteful atmosphere of the machiya was leaved as it was and I repaired only the construction steadily. I added pillars to arrange in height, exchanged timber under the floor for new one, repaired the bamboo laths, and repainted the tsuchikabe wall.
The house is restored to its original condition. It is now able to continue to live for decades.


(This house appeared in the August 2019 issue of Jūtaku Kenchiku and Issue 46 of Kangaeruhito.)