This compact private residence is nestled within the dense expanse of Tokyo, in Nishi-Azabu—a neighborhood characterized by narrow streets and traditional low-rise houses—which borders a park heavily visited during the spring, when the city’s cherry trees begin to bloom.
Its 136-square-meter area consists of five horizontally divided spaces, each connected by a minuscule sculptural spiraling staircase that, given the footprint of the house, allowing for loft-like spaces within its intimate confines. Oversized windows punctuate the house, each with two layers of glazing; one is transparent and one is of the same relief glass that wraps the façade. These oversized windows, with their dual layers of glazing, can be countlessly reconfigured, to regulate the interior flow of daylight.
Photography Jan Bitter
Project team
Wiel Arets, Satoru Umehara, Alex Kunnen
Collaborators
Jörg Lüthke, Jean-Jacques Jungers, Sadamu Shirafuji, Ilze Paklone
Client
Arets-Sijstermans
For more info visit : www.wielaretsarchitects.com