In view of the danger of earthquakes in Japan, this small weekend house situated on a wooded hill near Fujiyoshida was designed with a flexible timber skeleton-frame structure. The roughly six-metre span of the roof is halved by an open wall system that can be used as shelving. This element not only bears the vertical roof loads; it can also resist the lateral thrust from earthquakes. Set freely in space, the shelving forms a visual division ­between the main living area and the smaller adjoining zones. In the living room, which is two storeys high in part, the horizontal forms of the wall elements and the opaque polycarbonate cladding are reminiscent of traditional Japanese housing design.