Akizuki No Tori House is a modern guesthouse located in Akizuki, Japan, designed in 2018 by Fujiwalabo.

Description
Akizuki is an old village formed in a valley carved out by the flow of the Notori River and has long been known as a famous place for its clean, clear water. Most houses in the town still dig wells for their own drinking supply, and the crops grown in the surrounding fields are particularly delicious. The streets are lined with ancient stone walls, samurai houses and machiya townhouses. It is a pristine town, very much rooted in the history and culture of the area.
The request from the client was for a guesthouse where anyone could feel comfortable, and for an architecture that could contribute to community development. Rather than jumping straight into the design, we were inspired to question what kind of architecture should exist here, and so began our design process by setting up a critical dialogue through regular visits and workshops. Through these investigations, we became intrigued by the nagayamon house typology. The nagayamon (gatehouse) is an interesting condition where people live inside the space that signifies a gate, which is like living inside the boundary between the town and the house. As the project site exists at the border of the old and new Akizuki towns, we decided to design a guesthouse that would symbolise a gate, linking the past with the present.
So the project began with a division, the public space on the g...