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House in Tamatsu by Kenji Ido

Designed by Kenji Ido of Ido Architectural Studio for a family of four in Osaka, Japan, this home makes use of the narrow lot by maximizing space with an open floorplan.

The family’s former house was located on this same site, and was a wooden two-story home. Now replaced with a three-story home, the house already better utilizes more of its lot and gets quite a bit more light, too.

The homeowners wanted an open floor plan – living, dining and kitchen as large as possible and minimizing the need for pillars or walls.

The master bedroom and bath are located on the first floor, while the second houses the kids’ rooms. A terrace was placed on the roof.

Details of the challenges from the architect:

For a structural reason, the large openings were not able to open out on the road side of the first floor of the building. So, I rotated the volume of the second floor 14 degrees for the axis of the building, and interstitial spaces between the rotated wall and the outer wall of the building became voids. The skylight was set up in the upside of the void, and is intended to allow natural light to drop on the family room of the first floor.

Moreover, one of two walls rotated 14 degrees on the plan of the second floor is also inclined to the verticality, and the part which overlaps with stairs is turned up, and has become like origami or a facet. This inclined wall frees people’s feeling by deviation from the norm, simultaneously the sense of touch of the degree of inclination and the light to reflect of that inclination cause a new physical sense.

Photos by Yohei Sasakura.

Jaime Derringer, Founder + Executive Editor of Design Milk, is a Jersey girl living in SoCal. She dreams about funky, artistic jewelry + having enough free time to enjoy some of her favorite things—running, reading, making music, and drawing.