The Final Wooden House as a catalyst for an Accumulation of Final Ideas

wooden block : human body

My ponderings about interior design and architecture have been spurring with little answer or extensive exploration for about 6 years now. A week ago, after a lively discussion of Sou Fujimoto’s The Final Wooden House, something finally clicked. This project is architecture, it is interior design, it is furniture, it is appliances, it is a space for living, and yes, it is actually a house. We discussed this house in my material strategies class. It was probably the third or fourth time I have seen or discussed it in a class, but this discussion generated a lot more thoughts and ideas than previously.

The use of wood in The Final Wooden House in relationship to the human scale is another interesting thought to explore. Never before have I seen or experienced a material so deliberately chosen for scale of the material rather than any other quality. Notice the size of the user of the space in comparison to the size of each wooden block. What form would other architectural materials take given these constraints to take shape to their own properties and to the human body?

“There are no separations of floor, wall, and ceiling here. A place that one thought was a floor becomes a chair, a ceiling, a wall from various positions. The floor levels are relative and spatiality is perceived differently according to one’s position.” -Sou Fujimoto

The Final Wooden House is the most pure usable and livable form I have come across that exhibits the beliefs I have about the design of space. It is perhaps an extreme example, but being extreme provoked a deeper exploration in this subject for me.

“If architecture made from wood is to be considered wooden architecture, then this bungalow is the wood itself that transcends the architectural convention to directly become a place for humans. It is of primordial existence before architecture. That is to say, rather than new architecture, it seeks new conception, a new existence.” -Sou Fujimoto

Images by Iwan Baan sourced from ArchDaily

Information sourced from ArchDaily and archiCentral (this site includes a great description of the design by Fujimoto)