Silver A' Design Award Winner 2025
Spatial arrangement within Time Flow Residential House operates as deliberate meditation on threshold and transition, with the timber screen functioning as permeable membrane between interior sanctuary and implied exterior realm, encoding the liminal quality that traditional dwelling spaces honored through engawa verandas and shoji partitions. The horizontal emphasis created by ceiling plane, table surface, and floor establishes earth-connection symbolism countered by the vertical aspiration of the timber screen and pendant luminaire, creating axis mundi dialogue between grounded dwelling and upward spiritual orientation. Material choices carry significant cultural freight, with timber's association with warmth, growth, and natural cycles reinforcing the temporal awareness suggested by the design's title, while microcement's mineral permanence introduces memento mori undertones of geological time against human transience. The tripartite pendant of stacked spheres evokes pearl symbolism across cultures, suggesting wisdom accumulated through layers of experience, lunar associations with cyclical time, and the Buddhist concept of precious jewels representing enlightenment. The wishbone chair's organic form references the pelvis and branch-fork, archetypal shapes encoding both bodily comfort and arboreal connection, while its pale coloring suggests bone and bleached wood, mortality integrated comfortably into domestic life. The illuminated niche functions as contemporary household shrine, a tokonoma-derived space for rotating contemplative objects that grounds daily life in aesthetic awareness and seasonal acknowledgment. Dried botanical elements encode acceptance of natural cycles, their preserved beauty celebrating transience rather than resisting it, embodying mono no aware sensibility within Western minimalist vocabulary. The casually leaning artwork refuses the formality of hung display, suggesting that aesthetic engagement emerges from living relationship rather than institutional authority, democratizing the contemplative encounter. Overall the space encodes sanctuary as active practice rather than passive retreat, inviting inhabitants into conscious relationship with time's passage through material presence and proportional harmony.
In this project, the designer uses natural materials and changes in light and shadow to create a sense of tranquility within the space. When considering residential design, the focus should be on creating a space that reflects the residents lifestyle and values. In the design process, aim to integrate natural elements by incorporating natural materials and maximizing the use of natural light and ventilation to create an environment that harmonizes with nature.