Toh Shimazaki Architecture have completed a house design in Surrey, United Kingdom. Named Open and Shut House, its form is a series of shifting volumes in the landscape, each housing a separate element of the OSh house. The architectural concept for this house has been derived from the existing landscape and its gentle contours and the details found on the site. These details include a ‘wonky’ brick wall, leaf patterns on the ground, and the variety of trees and their colours. The site is a fragment of a large 18th Century Manor estate and includes the remnants of a red brick estate wall running through its centre.
The house design is sited to be part of its natural landscape setting relating to the geometry of the estate wall with its series of walled gardens. The views from and through the open plan brick and timber structure change constantly with the configuration of the dividing screens, making one’s experience a journey through the landscape directed by the house.
Open and Shut House by Toh Shimazaki Architecture in United Kingdom
Open and Shut House, exterior brick and timber structure house
Open and Shut House, exterior natural landscape and garden
Open and Shut House, master plan