This Tokyo Residence Fits a Large Terrace Within a Not-so-Large House
Providing a sanctuary within the city.
Inhabitants of large cities often have to sacrifice luxuries such as a terrace due to the spatial confines of smaller plots of land. However, at the request of one married couple, architect Takuro Yamamoto designed a stark, minimalist house in a Tokyo suburb that devotes close to half its footprint to a spacious patio. Favoring the privacy of its clients, the appropriately named “Little House with a Big Terrace” has no windows that face outward towards the street, but generous floor-to-ceiling glazed windows that open out onto the sundeck and flood the interior with natural light. Housing a garage, guest bedroom and bathroom on the ground floor, the living room and kitchen on the first floor and sleeping quarters on the second floor all open up to the double-height patio, which Yamamoto refers to as a “respiratory organ to let the house breathe.”
