How an Architect Fit 7 Floors into His 645-Square-Foot Tokyo Home

Tokyo has the highest concentration of population in all of Japan,

so tracts of land that were once large

have been divided into two and three tracts

with many small houses built on them, with a lot of people gathered in small spaces.

Practically speaking, if you want to build a house in Tokyo today, it has to be about this size or smaller.

So while there is this reality about living in Tokyo,

I want to explore the potential in small pieces of land

to provide comfortable living spaces.

I think that was one of the purposes in presenting this house.

What inspired me was my love of Legos from a young age.

I had a lot of sets, and at first I would build them according to the instructions,

but I would take those apart right away and rebuild them into houses or castles.

I thought it would be fun if that could be my actual job.

From the time I got married, my wife and I began talking about building a house.

After we found the land, we talked about it and designed it as a couple for about a year.

It took nearly five years to complete.

There are seven floors

that are all slightly different levels creating different spaces.

While it’s technically only two floors, it’s actually the height of a four-floor building,

so we’ve created a lot of airiness,

giving the building a more spacious feel.

The land space is compact,

so we wanted a comfortable home that didn’t feel small.

We also placed value on having a space where we could sense each other’s presence.

Rather than defining how each room should be used,

reading a book or eating or working wherever I like,

reading a book or eating or working wherever I like,

I am not conforming to the space, the space is changing to suit my needs.

That is how this house works.

This is the entrance and workspace.

In order to give this space as much sheer volume as possible,

we lowered the floor

and made the ceiling high. By lowering the ceiling little by little in this direction,

we were able to design the space so that this area is very open.

The floor has a structure in it called a “beam.”

Normally, the floor would be built on top of this.

But by making the floor below it, we were able to sink the floor

giving the space more total space and higher ceilings.

This is a part of the stairs,

so you can climb up this way,

or you can sit on it and use it as a bench.

By making this level a part of the stairs,

we were able to put a shoebox under the floor and use the storage space effectively.

On this side,

the walls have been built slightly inset

so we were able to install long, slit windows.

So light comes in from this side, too.

From this window, light constantly pours in, and depending on the time of day,

the light hits in completely different ways, so even if you are here all day long

you’ll never get tired of being in this space.

Also,

I wanted to be able to store as many books as I own as possible, so I made this entire wall a bookcase with my books.

This is the kitchen.

The kitchen

was designed to be at the exact center of the building.

It is situated so that the approach is the same from both the first floor and the second floor.

The house itself

is a little small, so in light of that

the kitchen was made relatively large,

and it was also designed to align with my height and my wife’s.

The counters are high, but the depth

we made as shallow as possible

so as not to obstruct the floorspace.

We didn’t create it with a traditional kitchen feel.

We’re using one part of the hallway as the kitchen,

so while the house is small, we’re using the space effectively.

Also, as much as possible, we designed the upper and lower storage without doors

so that we can see what we have where.

It’s designed to be visible.

This stainless steel counter

is very long, but to prevent the seams from showing

it was created from a single sheet of steel for the sake of both appearance and hygiene. Both were considered in the design.

In terms of construction budget,

ours wasn’t very big.

So this entire area, we painted ourselves.

That’s about all that was really tough.

These stairs also

are stairs, but

they were designed to also be kitchen storage, like a pantry.

They can also be used to sit on when you’re tired from cooking.

It was designed so that different levels can also be used as seating.

This is the living space.

We have our meals here and relax.

I wanted to make the house as bright as possible,

which is why there is one large window here starting at floor height

and this high sidelight is also

an entire wall of windows. You can’t see in from the outside,

but bright sunlight pours into this space.

This is also

a compact space, so if there were a lot of furniture here,

the space would feel a lot smaller, so we have only the absolute minimum.

Like the lower floors, there are different levels that act as chairs or working spaces.

The different levels were designed with that function in mind.

This half was designed to act as the terrace or garden.

This concrete wall

was made to appear to have wood grains.

On this wall

and the ceiling, no light fixtures have been attached. As much as possible,

natural light comes into the space beautifully making this wall almost like a piece of artwork.

Therefore, the switches, etc. that are normally on most walls, are not on this one.

There is a ladder here.

It is designed to allow you to climb up here to open the window for ventilations or to clean the windows.

Here also,

the ceiling has been designed to be as high as possible.

Here, the height is about five meters.

Conversely, the bed space

ceiling is only about two meters high. By creating that difference,

this main living space has been designed to appear much bigger comparatively.

This is the bathroom.

This box space houses the toilet. Here,

we have the sink and washing machine.

The bathing area is in back. For the bath,

rather than making it uncomfortably small because this is a small house,

I wanted the bath to also feel as spacious as possible.

Therefore, the walls are clear windows to allow a view of the sky and outside.

I didn’t really want to hang laundry outside, so

these iron bars

act as both handrails and drying racks. If you look here,

you can see grooves. Hangers fit here

and the grooves act as stoppers.

Heat rises, and this is a warm, sunny spot

so laundry dries very quickly here.

My philosophy is to build strong homes that can adapt to any changes.

Once a building is built, it can’t be changed depending on your mood, like clothing.

But a building will last even after its residents are gone from the earth.

So even if the residents change, or the lifestyle or size of the family living in the house changes,

without losing the good things that building and space have to offer,

it is able to adapt to a variety of changes.

We’ve made it as spacious as possible and leveraged sight lines to make sure that it doesn’t feel small.

Though it is small, it was designed so that it doesn’t feel that way.