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- ephemeral house by naad interior viewMany architects delight in tackling renovations of older homes, finding ways to highlight their ancient bones with modern twists. Japanese firm <a href="http://www.naad.jp/" target="_blank">NAAD</a> has unveiled a project with a much different slant. To create <a href="http://www.dezeen.com/2015/02/12/naad-renovation-century-old-house-japan-plywood-skin-unfinished/" target="_blank">Ephemeral House</a>, the team gutted a 100-year-old home and lined nearly every inch of the interior with unfinished <a href="http://inhabitat.com/this-stunning-madrid-apartment-uses-plywood-as-a-multi-functional-space-saving-feature/" target="_blank">plywood</a> for an intentionally rough look. Instead of a popular sleek, polished look, NAAD’s 20-something-year-old client has a temporary home that was designed to look incomplete.1
- ephemeral house by naad sparse interiorEach room of the timber-framed home is lined with plywood.2
- ephemeral house by naad interiorLeft unstained, the plywood covers every wall, floor, and ceiling and makes the house look almost like a construction job left undone.3
- ephemeral house by naad solid staircaseThe house, located in Kyoto, is also largely empty.4
- ephemeral house by naad sitting areaIts sparsely furnished look emphasizes the ‘incompleteness’ of the dwelling.5
- ephemeral house by naad stairsA solid staircase rises through the center of the structure and is perhaps the only surface not lined with untreated plywood.6
- ephemeral house by naad closing partitionAlthough Ephemeral House looks dramatically different than a traditional Japanese home at first glance, it does possess some familiar features. Sliding dividers can be expanded to create individual rooms, or left retracted for a more open floor plan.7
- ephemeral house by naad with womanClosing the sliding partitions creates smaller rooms, offering some privacy and coziness in this otherwise stark space.8
- ephemeral house by naad with roomArchitects Yoichiro Hayashi and Shogo Sakurai designed the home with this ‘unfinished’ aesthetic at the request of their young their client, who wanted a <a href="http://inhabitat.com/alex-chinneck-builds-a-wax-house-in-london-just-to-watch-it-melt/" target="_blank">temporary</a> place for living—and nothing more.9