Suzu is a project in Kyoto, Japan, that consisted of the renovation of two houses that co-inhabit the same land but that more than seven decades separate their architectural styles and construction methods.
The two houses share the same entrance from the road access and an intermediate garden in the tsuboniwa style, typical of traditional Kyoto architecture.
This project aimed to create three houses from the renovation of two houses. The street space required a more flexible program such as semi-public (gallery / office) and private (residential use) space. The project also required a special commission of the use of regional construction techniques, use of traditional materials and the maximum preservation of the traditional architecture of the 1920s.
The project is conceived using two main methods: "Tone Architecture" and "Building Biology". Tone Architecture is the design method devised by Bonbonma where architecture and architectural space are born from sound. In case of remodeling, the sounds are "extracted" from the original architecture. Each space vibrates at a frequency equivalent to one or a couple of musical notes. Each note in each space and as a whole give birth to the new architecture. The new spaces evoke new notes and in the end the project becomes a latent musical composition.
Both the preservation of traditional construction techniques and the application of Building Biology, gave rise to using only natural materials, excluding or avoiding any type of plastic and derivative materials and a special attention to minimizing waste.
