A Rainbow of Colorful Arches Brightens Up a Live/Work Home in Japan

Hefty inheritance taxes and natural disasters are just a few of the reasons why forever homes are rare in Japan. Instead, there’s a "scrap-and-build" design culture where homes are often torn down and rebuilt after 30 years rather than being renovated to meet shifting seismic codes.

So, when architects Fumio Hirakawa and Marina Topunova of 24d-Studio opted to turn a 35-year-old wooden post-and-beam home in Hirawakwa’s hometown of Kobe into a live/work space, you can imagine just how radical the project seemed.

The land originally belonged to Hirakawa’s grandfather, and it was the site of a residential building that included rental units and his own home. Eventually, the property was passed down to Hirakawa’s father with an agreement that the existing apartment building would be scrapped to build a house where Hirakawa’s father could establish his own business and home, along with three residential rental units.

Like most of Kobe, the home was affected by the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995. "But to our surprise, it was one of the few houses in the neighborhood that was not classified as ‘totally destroyed’ or ‘partially destroyed,’" Hirakawa explains. "There were several cracks on the facade, but the structure and roofing tiles were all intact."