House near Tokyo, Japan

In this house, the storey-height furnishing units – wardrobes, bookcases and kitchen cupboards – also function as space-dividers and structural elements. Prefabrication under factory conditions guarantees better quality than site construction. The transport and handling of the “building materials” are also unproblematic. The individual elements are 240 cm high, 90 cm wide and have a depth of 70 cm (45 cm in the case of bookshelves). They can, therefore, be assembled by a single person. The elements are first fixed to each other, then screwed to the floor. The roof structure consists of prefabricated beams horizontally braced with plywood panels. This form of construction results in considerable savings in materials, time and costs.