A House with a Butterfly Roof by UID Architects

In 2019, the firm Universal Innovative Design Architects, founded by Keisuke Maeda in Hiroshima in 2003,  built a single-storey house with over 300 square metres of living space, Butterfly House. Blending perfectly into a district composed of traditional houses with hipped or gabled rooves, the organic-style residence offers a new horizon thanks to its seven wooden peaks. 

Winner of the Environmental and Equipment Design Award in 2018, Keisuke Maeda, constantly seeks to construct creative works that are in a harmonious balance with nature and the surrounding area. Thus, his philosophy rests on the conviction that ‘to create architecture is to create an environment’, as he states in the book Uid Architects – Keisuke Maeda (2016). He believes that the relationship between humans and the natural environment is reciprocal. 

A roof to drain and collect rainwater

To maintain the connection between the house and garden, UID Architects used gabled butterfly rooves to divide the residence into seven distinct buildings. This formation offers various possible arrangements of the labyrinthine interior spaces.

Thanks to their elevated ceiling height, the windows are long and nature thus appears to become an internal part of the home. This is an integral element of the postmodern architectural movement and its organic principles. In addition to offering aesthetic value by going over the external seams, the shape of the framework is ecological. The gradient means that Butterfly House is protected against leaks and humidity because the rain is drained immediately. The roof is also designed to gather water for domestic uses. 

These structural changes illustrate a new way of living.  With such broadened horizons, humans are no longer restricted to their own environment. 

Butterfly House (2019), a project by the firm UID Architects, can be found on Keisuke Maeda’s website.