Yo Yamagata Architects

The house is for a family of four, a couple and two children. The site is located in a quiet residential area on a gentle southern slope, with abundant greenery along the road. Because of the narrow frontage and deep shape of the original plot, three equivalent gardens were arranged instead of one large garden to eliminate the environmental gap between the southern part on the road side and the northern part at the back of the site. These are the front garden on the approach to the street side, the courtyard in the center of the building, and the back garden on the north side. The main living room, dining room, and bedrooms are designed to have views of two of the three gardens, and the house is designed to allow the residents to feel close to various external spaces in various scenes of their lives. The house is spread over three floors from the basement to the second floor, but two devices were created to create a sense of unity without dividing the space between floors. The first is a vertical flow line that combines stairs and a ramp, allowing the eye to move in various directions as the viewer's perspective shifts. The other is a courtyard with a balcony. By covering half of the courtyard with a balcony, a roofed terrace is created on the first floor and an open terrace space is created on the second floor, connecting the first and second floors by allowing the eye to pass through this semi-exterior space in a diagonal direction.