When people think of Katsuura, they often picture a seaside resort. Yet this project site lies inland, in a satoyama landscape of bamboo groves set back from the coast. Along the gentle terrain shaped by the Isumi River, small settlements and wooded hills are scattered across the area. Although removed from major tourist hubs, we found that in recent years it has seen a rapid rise in “whole-house rental” accommodations. Close enough to Tokyo yet primarily accessible by private car, the setting naturally limits visitors’ movements and allows them to claim quiet, secluded time away from the city’s bustle. As a result, the area has become a highly competitive destination where private villas—turning the landscape itself into a resource—have increasingly concentrated.

Since the pandemic, the value of travel has been shifting from consumption-driven sightseeing to the editing of experiences and relationships through staying in one place. Whole-house rentals have matured as “another home,” where one can live as an extension of everyday life while letting differences in the environment bring forth a sense of the extraordinary. While many nearby facilities assume a minimum unit of one party per day, RICKA KATSUURA redefines the model as a place for multiple families, groups of friends, and even workation stays—accommodating up to 12 guests at once.

Supporting this scale is the expansive estate-like site and a cluster of existing buildings dispersed across it. Their scattered arrangement ensures privacy for each guest while gently encouraging shared presence through the outdoor spaces in between. Rather than a villa that closes itself off as a “complete individual,” we propose the concept of a “community villa”: a place where people can gather, separate, work, and rest as needed.

As we studied circulation and places to stay—assuming fluctuations in group size and diverse ways of spending time—we introduced a new sauna building. While saunas are highly appealing as an experiential feature, what mattered most in this plan was how its placement could renew the quality of the outdoor environment. Positioning the sauna with the main house and kura (storehouse) to frame a courtyard subtly rearticulates what had been a single garden into multiple zones—such as the pool, the firepit area, and the courtyard. This gives guests an outline for moving through the site as their purposes shift, generating a variety of places to linger across the property.

The main house, where guests come together, was reconfigured by reorganizing the existing layout with a focus on re-editing its relationship to the courtyard. As the core experience of “spending time under one roof,” we intentionally reveal the scale of the roof structure of this nearly 100-year-old kominka, allowing the building’s inherent character to form the backbone of the stay. Rather than adding novelty through renovation, we aim to reinterpret the time embedded in the existing fabric and bring forth a landscape where staying, socializing, working, and resting can coexist. RICKA KATSUURA is an experiment that examines this potential as the next phase of whole-house accommodation in satoyama.