Tokyo Architect’s 7 Level Compact Home, 59sqm/635sqft

I designed this house as my office and home.

My wife and I live here together.

My office is on the first floor.

The building was built by stacking seven platforms. Each platform offset from the other.

We designed different spaces on each floor, and added large windows for natural light.

We both like concrete, so we decided to build the house using mainly concrete.

We had a lot of books, so we wanted a place to store them all.

We both like to talk about our day, so we designed the house in a way that allows us to talk wherever we are.

It also gives a sense of what the other person is doing.

This house is located in a relatively ordinary residential area in Tokyo.

It is close to the station, a large park, and a railroad crossing, and is located in a quiet residential area.

The house is a rectangular concrete box.

It has large walls and large windows.

The building’s footprint is 31 square meters, and the total floor area is 59 square meters.

The first floor has the entrance, storage, and kitchen.

The second floor has the living room and bedroom, The toilet and bathroom are on the upper floor.

The big iron sliding front door is 1.8 meters high and 2.5 meters wide.

It's designed so that it's hard to tell from the outside that it's a door.

The 2.5 meter door can be fully opened.

It extends the house to the street.

At the entrance, we placed a large stone to step down to the genkan area.

It is a type of Komatsu stone.

The holes in these concrete walls are usually concealed, but we left them exposed and turned them into hooks.

We can hang items like our hats and plants.

By the entrance, I raised the floor partially and added doors to create a shoe storage.

The door is made from the same wood as the walls of the kitchen and toilet.

I work in the office, on the first floor, every day.

I’m surrounded by my books and plants.

I love the light that comes in at unique angles throughout the day.

It's a very comfortable and nice place to work.

The beams on the floor doubles as a bench.

When clients come for a meeting, I put cushions on the beam so it’s nice to sit.

The lights above are from my favorite makers.

I hang them here as samples for my clients to see.

Behind the office is a storage area, we store our clothes and things we don’t often use here.

It's 4.5 meters wide and 1.6 meters deep, and feels like a walk-in closet.

It's made of inexpensive wooden boards.

Next to the genkan, there is a small step onto a platform.

I like to read books here and display the projects I’m currently working on.

The stand is made from some spare cedar wood and an IKEA towel rack I had lying around.

The bookshelf covers the entire wall, it’s about 6 meters from the bottom to the top.

I love books and have always had a small collection, but since I started this design job 10 to 20 years ago, I've collected so much more.

The first floor is for architecture books I use for work.

The second floor and above is for manga, novels, and other non-work-related books.

The stairs are made from concrete.

We designed the shape to make the heavy concrete look light by tapering the ends to a thin triangle.

The kitchen is located between the first and second floors.

As the first floor is the office and the second floor is the living room we wanted the kitchen to be in the middle. This allows easy access from both areas.

The kitchen is about 3.3m long, which is quite large for a small house.

The upper part is open storage and the countertop is made from a thin steel sheet.

They both make the kitchen feel light.

I added a small window in the kitchen.

Because this kitchen is at the back of the house, it would’ve been quite dark.

For the splash back, I used a stainless steel sheet.

There is a staircase by the kitchen which was designed to look like a piece of furniture.

We use it as a seat and it also doubles as our pantry.

The second floor is the living and dining room.

It is the largest space in the house.

It has a ceiling height of about 5 meters.

With small homes, having line of sight helps to make the home feel larger.

This also creates levels to sit or perch, such as on the floor.

I designed it this way so that you can relax anywhere you want.

I couldn't find a bed that would fit well into this space, so I designed it and put it together by myself.

On our days off, my wife usually uses the bed as a sofa and reads books here.

The bedroom faces west, and has a large window.

It gets a lot of sun so we put our plants here.

At the end of the bed, we extended the bookshelf to create a head board.

This part of the bookshelf contains our bedroom storage.

From the living room, there is a steel staircase that goes up to the toilet and bathroom.

We consolidated all of the amenities along the wall to keep this area neat and tidy.

As the bathroom is small, we purchased a compact dryer.

We like the design and it just fits in this space.

For the shower room, we used glass to let in the natural light.

When we need extra privacy, we use the curtain.

The steel bar doubles as a handrail.

I also use it to hang my laundry.

Above the bedroom, is a ladder that leads up to the open rooftop.

In the summer, you can see fireworks from the rooftop.

In small homes, I think we can use its smallness to our advantage.

Creating large open areas with clear lines of sight, and different zones so the home doesn’t feel small.