A planned road expansion in Zushi, Japan, gave the Circularity Cabin an expiration date from the start. Local rules require structures in the affected area to be easy to dismantle, so Takaaki Fuji + Yuko Fuji Architecture and AREANO designed the two-story house as something that can move with its residents. Its timber frame can be taken apart by hand, transported, and assembled again elsewhere, which allows the circular structure to outlast the plot it currently occupies.
Standard timber sections available from Japanese home centers form most of the structure, joined with bolts and screws instead of permanent connections. The components stay small enough to be handled without heavy machinery, while their familiar dimensions make them easier to reuse if the house is eventually broken down for parts. The cabin is therefore organized around two possible futures: relocation as a complete building, or reuse as a collection of timber elements.
images © Takuya Seki
a structure of off-the-shelf timber
Inside the Circularity Cabin, which measures roughly 5.7-meter-wide, the construction by Takaaki Fuji + Yuko Fuji Architecture is almost completely exposed. A 1.82 by 1.82-meter grid sets out 105-millimeter-square columns, while much of the remaining frame uses 45 by 105-millimeter pine and cedar members. These smaller sections require little processing beyond being cut to length and drilled. There is no precut joinery to decode during disassembly, and the external wall sheathing doubles as the interior surface, leaving the frame and its connections in view.
The second-floor structure makes that logic especially visible. Closely spaced 45-millimeter-square joists form an open slatted deck, fixed with screws while providing the horizontal rigidity required of the floor. The central stair follows a similarly direct approach, with timber treads fixed to square steel stringers that bolt onto the columns and can be removed again. Architecture that usually disappears behind finishes stays legible here, which also makes repairs and replacement easier for the people living inside.
the Circularity Cabin is designed to relocate with its residents once a planned road expansion reaches the site
a slatted floor moves light and air between levels
The cabin also responds closely to Zushi’s yato topography, a valley enclosed by hills and open toward the sea where wind direction changes between day and night. Three high sidelights rise above the timber cube to catch those shifting breezes, their positions informed by environmental analysis of the surrounding terrain. Facing a busy arterial road to the southwest, the house keeps openings on that elevation limited and draws much of its daylight and ventilation from above.
Once light and air enter through the roof, the slatted upper floor lets both pass down into the level below. One window even sits between the two stories because the open deck loosens the usual division between floors. Furniture becomes part of this environmental setup as well. Moving a bed or shelf upstairs changes how light filters through the slats and how air circulates below, giving the family a simple way to adjust the interior as conditions shift through the year.
standard timber from Japanese home centers forms the two-story structure
the house is built with its next site in mind
Across 59.62 square meters, the plan stays compact. A three-by-three ken grid places the staircase at the center, while the kitchen and bathroom occupy a 910-millimeter-wide band along the perimeter. Outside, sawara cypress boards wrap the compact volume. The tongue-and-groove boards can be removed progressively from their ends, extending the same reversible construction thinking from the frame to the facade.
The Circularity Cabin treats a building’s eventual departure as something architecture can prepare for from the beginning. Its first site may have a limited future, yet the house is assembled from pieces intended to keep going, either together on another plot or separately within another construction. That possibility gives the cabin its particular character. The joints stay visible, the timber remains familiar in size, and permanence gives way to a building that can change address.
removable sawara cypress boards extend the reversible construction system across the exterior
bolts and screws allow the frame to be dismantled and assembled again elsewhere
the exposed structure keeps the cabin’s connections visible from inside
three high sidelights draw shifting sea breezes into the compact timber volume
an open slatted floor lets daylight pass between the home’s two levels
project info:
name: Circularity Cabin
architect: tyfa / Takaaki Fuji + Yuko Fuji Architecture | @fuji_architect_tokyo_japan
location: Zushi, Kanagawa, Japan
structural engineer: Yasuhirokaneda Structure
contractor: Sanbutsu Kensetsu
completion: 2023
photography: © Takuya Seki | @takuyasekimonsieur
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