Koshino House Addition (小篠邸増築)

The wing was added in 1984 to Koshino House, which Tadao Ando had completed in 1981 for the fashion designer Hiroko Koshino (コシノヒロコ). The building has been open to the public since April 2013: it is now KH Gallery Ashiya, which presents Hiroko Koshino's art.

Placed north of the existing structures, the cave-like wing sinks into the rising slope. Unlike the linear layout of the original parts, it is enclosed by a wall drawn as a quarter circle, which holds back the earth and wraps around the space. The study there has a bold curve that brings in a rhythm quite unlike the rectilinear plan.

Between the addition and the original volume, a strip of grass weaves between the concrete, and the curved wall continues outside the building, where it shapes the exterior space. As in the first volumes, a slit is cut in the ceiling along the curved wall, but the light it casts falls in curved patterns, very different from the linear patterns of the original building.

The wing is seen together with the rest of Koshino House, on the gallery's terms: by reservation through its website, on Thursdays and Fridays from 12:30 to 16:00, outside the winter closure.