Garden & House, Japan

Office of Ryue Nishizawa 


Aside from domestic spaces such as a room for each owner, a restroom, a living area and a guestroom, this house for two editors also contains several office spaces for professional use.

The small size and shape of the plot, a rectangle of 8 x 4 meters, as well as its position boxed in between two buildings measuring 30 meters high, were essential to define the building’s formal features. The possibility of using a conventional structure of porticoes was discarded due to lack of space, choosing instead superposed reinforced concrete slabs resting on two cores at the rear, and some almost imperceptible steel supports. The house unfolds upwards, vertically, like a unique architectural promenade along a sinuous staircase that goes through the platforms. The building seems to have no walls, because the rooms are closed with glass that is set back from the facade surface. Light and air make their way into every corner of the house, making it possible for small domestic gardens to grow; vegetation colonizes different spaces in each one of the levels, increasing the sensation of openness and immateriality of the house.  


Arquitecto Architect

Office of Ryue Nishizawa

Colaboradores Collaborators

Taeko Nakatsubo

Consultores Consultants

Alan Burden, Hiroki Osanai (estructuras structures); Heisei Construction: Hachiro Horigome, Kim Daehwan (ejecución de obra construction supervision); System Design: Takehito Sano, Akiko Sano (instalaciones HVAC systems)

Contratista Contractor

Heisei Construction

Fotos Photos

Iwan Baan