Koshino House (小篠邸)

Tadao Ando designed the house for the fashion designer Hiroko Koshino (コシノヒロコ), who lived there for about thirty years, altering it to suit her way of life. Completed in 1981, the house gained a wing with a curved wall in 1984, and its south wing was extensively remodelled in 2006. Koshino had chosen the place to sharpen her senses in the midst of nature and feel the seasons as she created.

In April 2013 she opened the building to the public.

The house consists of two concrete volumes of different heights, set side by side and half-buried in the slope of a national park; they avoid the site's trees. An underground tunnel beneath the exterior steps of the courtyard links the two volumes. The courtyard follows the terrain: a wide flight of steps descends into it, and light filters through the tree canopy.

Originally the north volume combined, on its lower level, a living room rising through both storeys, a kitchen and a dining room, with the master bedroom and a study above; the south volume lined up a row of bedrooms, a bathroom and a lobby. Inside, slit windows and openings let in strong light and frame the garden scenery.

The building is now KH Gallery Ashiya, which presents Hiroko Koshino's art, above all the paintings she has pursued alongside fashion, and hosts exhibitions and events, notably with artists from other fields. Natural light makes the contrast between the bare concrete walls and the paintings shift through the hours.

Visits are by reservation only, on Thursdays and Fridays from 12:30 to 16:00, through the form on the gallery's website, at the latest three days ahead (Monday for a Thursday, Tuesday for a Friday). The gallery closes in winter, because of icy roads and for maintenance of its facilities; it announces its opening days on its website.

It stands in a quiet residential area of a national park: visitors are asked to respect the neighbours and not to enter neighbouring properties or step onto the surrounding public roads to photograph the exterior.