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FT Architects: 4 columns
The site is situated ten-odd minutes away from the city center and is close to a huge river.
Originally a farmland area, in recent years it has been rapidly changed to housing land, and numerous small-scale
developments are built without any coordination. As a result, a miniature version of a suburban single-family house
are spread all over, creating the typical scenery of a contemporary city, which is neither the city center nor the
suburb.

FT Architects, 4 columns
The plot size doesnt allow a garden. In order to have the largest floor plan possible under building regulations, the
shape was automatically decided as a simple rectangular three storey high building. The timber structure allows to
limit the construction costs. High quality resistance to fire and earthquake is required for a three storey high house in
the city. Through ensuring the fire and earthquake resistance by the exterior wall, we managed to have a rich interior
space.
The exterior wall of this house inevitably becomes thick with little openings like a Kura (Traditional Japanese house
storage). We could say that this is the shape of the specification required for living in a contemporary city. In the
early modern period of Japan, people lived in kuras called Dwelling Kura, for its high tolerance of fire and
earthquakes. The townscape of Kawagoe and the Kashiwakura Familys Kurazashiki in Yamagata are excellent

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examples of this dwellings that remain in our times.

The chunky form gives a unique presence in its surrounding and a beautiful tense space is wrapped inside, where
the inner and outer space is connected through a small yet beautiful light. This house is a proposal for a Kura-type
dwelling space in a profligate city of our times.

FT Architects, 4 columns
In order to achieve a generous but tense space, Yotsudate, which is an old structural frame typical to Koshu-region
became our image source. 4 columns assembled like scaffolding, constitute the structural frame it is said that this
shape is the transitional form of the Japanese dwelling space from a pit dwelling to a medieval period dwelling.
While it is a symbolic structure holding up the roof, it also becomes the clue for daily life through movable partition
walls and the placement of the furniture.
FT Architects, 4 columns

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The floor plan is simply organized by a 2,730mm square with 4 columns in the corner, placed in the center of the
plan. From the form created by the square column space, a tense atmosphere like an Amida-temple (type of
Buddhist temple) is produced. The column is constituted by four 75mm square timber bundled together. A gap is
created in between the bundled timber where moveable partition walls or furniture could be attached, allowing it to
be adaptable to different use. The structural frame lowers the height of the beam and the joist allowing each floor to
have a larger volume.
The connection points of the vertical elements and the horizontal elements are all joined by bolts and screws giving
the house an unfinished feeling. Because of the simple organization of this house, we repeated close investigation
of the distance between the columns and the dimensions of each element, which are much smaller than the ordinary
ones. The point of balance between unfinished and the neatness of not being too rough was carefully decided with
the client and the contractor during construction.

FT Architects, 4 columns

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FT Architects, 4 columns, plans and sections

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FT Architects, 4 columns, axonometry

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FT Architects, 4 columns, site plan

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4 columns, Tokyo, Japan

Program: single family house
Architect: Katsuya Fukushima, Hiroko Tominaga / FT Architects
Structure: wood
Floor area : 101.19 sqm
Completion: 2015

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