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Long House Has Beach on Top

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A unique long, narrow house set in a wide open rural landscape, by Shinichi Ogawa & Associates, is designed around the concept of putting a 40 meter (120 foot) pool on a roof like a sand berm.

As you can imagine: this immense rooftop pool means the house underneath is extremely long and narrow; 150 meters (450 feet) long.

The family’s living quarters are grouped in glass clusters under the immense roof.

The ground floor under the pool is sheltered by a verandah overhang that goes the full length of the structure.

Opposite the pool on the top deck, an enclosed spa.

Near the mid-length point, a white cube connects both levels and takes you up and out to the pool roof.

But from the big white cube, no cramped little exit leads out to the pool.

Its entire wall slides open.

Coming back in from an evening swim, you would enter a surprisingly formal living room, a huge cube with a 6M high ceiling.

This very serious big cube of space is divided by the stairs that lead down to the family rooms below.

At the far end of this big cube, beyond the stairs that divide its space, is this even more formal dining room.

Every room below, along the length of the berm has long views to each side out to the hills.

With wide open glazing bringing in the surrounding natural world, the rooms underneath do not feel oppressed by the pool above.

These rooms open on both sides to the open and airy views beyond.

The effect of traversing the lengths of this immensely linear house would give the sense of traversing the long views.