Built with its two main blocks at 90-degree angles, the Plus House appears from above to form an almost complete cross or a plus-sign. The opulent weekend villa located on a mountainside in a popular holiday area known for its hot springs, in Shizuoka Prefecture on Japan's main island of Honshu.
Masahiro (36) and Mao (33) Harada, are husband and wife who founded Mount Fuji Architects Studio in 2004. Both are mountaineers thus named their studio after the Japan's highest and most admired mountain.
Overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the deceptively simple two-level concrete structure has private rooms and a bath on the lower level, and salon and kitchen on the upper.
The exterior is clad entirely in white water-polished marble with surface texture changing gradually toward the outer tips of the blocks from rough to mirror-smooth. The interior is also covered in white marble that reflects the blue light from the south and green light from the west. Photography by Ken'ichi Suzuki
