The house is located in the town of Nara and has been designed as a show room for the village Totsukawa-mura. This village has very rich of forestry resources, particularly cedar trees, and wants to encourage Japanese consumers to make better use of the local timber.
The house is built d on the Canadian 2/4 stud system and is highly insulated.
Unlike other insulated houses built in Japan, this building has no vapor barrier. The required air tightness of the building is achieved using the traditional Japanese wall built up consisting of laths and clay, called Makabe. The clay walls have a very positive effect on the house climate as the clay can regulate the moisture content of the air.
This example shows it is possible to combine old building techniques with modern building concepts to archive themaximum living comfort for the residents and being very energy efficient.
