An elevated terrace stretches along one particular side of this narrow house in Nara, Japan, delivering the residents with glimpses into the neighbourhood (+ slideshow).
Property in Nara is slotted into a thin sloping plot in between a road and a neighbouring home to the west of the Nara Basin.
The slender rectilinear volume by Kobe architect Keiichi Sugiyama measures 5 by 17 metres and is covered in a mixture of cedar wood and muted brown render.
An previous masonry retaining wall was eliminated from the website to enhance views of the city and a close by reservoir. In its spot the architect developed a screened terrace. Open at both finish, it provides residences glimpses into the surrounding neighbourhood.
The upper branches of a small tree protrude from the decking, which runs alongside a split-degree open-strategy residing room.
“Soon after demolishing the old wall, I constructed a new brief retaining wall with a warm-hunting wooden display along the boundary, and scraped off the ground,” explained the architect. “I floated the deck making use of cedar scaffolding plates at the very same degree as the ground floor.”
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Two bedrooms join the residing room at ground level, even though the master suite and a research are set on the very first floor. A garage is wedged beneath the residing room at the lowest point of the website.
Timber floors and beams are left exposed across the interior, which requires on a comparable aesthetic to a home the architect created in suburban Kobe.
The master bedroom and examine sit on either side of an atrium overlooking the split-degree living room and are connected by a lengthy corridor.
This corridor is lit by floor-degree windows and a narrow rectangular skylight that safeguard the spot from currently being overlooked by neighbours.
Wooden blinds can be drawn across openings in the walls of the bedroom and research to provide a degree of privacy from the communal spaces on the ground floor.
“By making the most of the slim web site, different scenes in a extended line are intoned comfortably by light and shade, lower and large, width and narrowness, opening and shutting,” explained the architect.
Photography is by Yoshiharu Matsumura.
Diagram – click for more substantial image 
Site prepare – click for more substantial picture 
Basement prepare – click for more substantial picture 
Ground floor plan – click for greater image 
Initial floor plan – click for larger image 
Segment – click for larger image 
