In Oita, Japan, a cloud has just landed safe and sound in a small residential suburb…Its bright metal appearance reinforces this romantic idea. This two-story building glows like a cloud on a sunny day between low houses and farmlands. It’s like an angel on earth. So simple but yet so distinctive! Continue reading
This is a call to all non-believers in minimal housing solutions… The D – Apartment in Osaka, Japan reveals how a tiny site can be occupied by a three-story building containing five apartments and even a small shop! Can you believe it? I´m talking about a construction area of 240 sq. m. magically converted into an exquisite floor design…
A rectangle with 2 x 16 meters is bended to fit in the 161 sq. m. area of the site. The volume folds around a narrow courtyard, while external staircases and balconies provide access to the several houses above. Continue reading
Flowers and humans sharing the same ceiling… Yet something is different in this small house in Kanagawa, Japan! Instead of a conventional house with a garden, here the garden became an inner part of the house composition. It’s truly astonishing! Nature becomes so much closer to architecture almost reaching our heart and soul. Continue reading
A weekend home = pure joy and relaxation! The entire world is green, especially when buildings become a “natural” part of the surrounding context. The site for this house in Marbella, Chile, slopes gently down to the north-east providing the most amazing views over the landscape. Attending to the particular topography, house and site are composed together as a single continuous space! Continue reading
Like a grey cat sleeping on a concrete floor on a sunny afternoon…That’s the image that crossed my mind when I first saw the ABE house! This tiny single-family home in Tokyo, Japan (with only 43.81 sq.m. of building area) invokes an anthropomorphic form composed by three volumes of varied heights. Continue reading
A garden for a house… Simply refreshing and unconventional architecture! Placed in Tokyo between two tall buildings, this tiny four-story house, with 66 sq.m. of building area, reveals itself to the street as a vertical garden!
Isn’t it strange that flowers vases and plants (along with the use of curtains) can really function as a facade, providing the required privacy and intimacy of a life at home? Let me introduce you to this fabulous project by Japanese architect Ryue Nishizawa… All that emerges in this anonymous front is a full-height window, which becomes the main solution to separate interior from exterior spaces. Continue reading
This unique urban container office and living space belongs to daiken-met architects in Gifu, Japan. It’s approx 1,198 sq. ft. in size and consists of 7 shipping containers which are held together by a steel mobile frame. Continue reading
This house, located in Nerima, Japan, is like a summer breeze: fresh and playful. The main elevation is divided into three blocks. Set apart, each stripe of the building volume is gradually narrower than the previous. The voids between them are also filled with the building body that is set back by a certain depth and height.
There are also large openings – the main house entrance and a balcony – in these “further set” blocks. This distinguishes them even more so from the “stripes”, which are solidly white, with playfully located windows. Continue reading
Le Corbusier said that a modern house should be “a machine for living”. Well, this house is a machine for sliding. And people who are able to slide from their bedroom to their breakfast table must be smiling more than people who use normal staircases. You know, going back to childhood and to doing things simply because they’re fun. (I’m sure there’s a research somewhere about this…) Continue reading
The use of sizes is conventionally associated to clothing… However, the universal art of fitting is a little bit different in some parts of the modern world. Some countries use characters for measure; other countries use numbers. In this particular case, I will use both systems to describe one fine example of how to fit a house into a tiny plot. Continue reading
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