A secluded balcony surrounded by timber protrudes from the clean white facade of this house in Osaka, Japan, by architect Ido Kenji (+ slideshow).
The architect planned the three-storey house to cover two thirds of the site, allowing for a driveway in front and a small garden at the rear.
"The client requested a garden on the south side of the site, so I decided to make the building three storeys to secure the required rooms," said Ido Kenji.
There's no bedroom, but a traditional Japanese room on the ground floor provides a sleeping area that opens out to the garden.
The living room occupies a double-height space on the middle floor and a study overlooks it from the level above.
Pine is used for flooring, surfaces, doors and bookshelves throughout the house. "It's aimed as a quiet, soft space with the wood and the paint-finished walls," added Kenji.
The frame of the house is also timber and structural beams are exposed around the edges of the rooms.
Kitchen and bathrooms are located above the car port at the front of the building and lead out onto the balcony.
The house was completed in 2010 but was not published at the time.
Other houses we've featured from Japan include a house in Nagoya with a stretched facade and a house for an elderly couple in Sendai.
See more Japanese houses on Dezeen »
Photography is by Takumi Ota.
Above: site plan
Above: ground floor plan
Above: first floor plan
Above: second floor plan
Above: long section
Above: cross section
Nice! I wish that the whole world would take example from Japan about building with wood and concrete mixed. Wood is very nice!
Very clean and very light. Super.
It's a beautiful house but where are the bedrooms?
Probably, the owner of this house will sleep with futon bedding in the tatami room.
It’s Japan – they just roll out some futons at night time to sleep on.
It’s a mediocre house.
I love modern Japanese houses!
Usually Japanese architects build beautiful homes. But I don’t like this one: the wood appears to be pine and is too bright with lot of knots.
I don’t believe this is a Japanese house. Dezeen doesn’t usually feature Japanese houses with safety features such as guardrails and handrails.
For the comments about wood and concrete, I’d like to direct them to this house:
http://www.samueltludwig.com/jose-oubrerie/
Good project. I appreciate Japanese minimalism. Things are going to change a bit when people move in; a good project anyway.