Optical Glass House was constructed beside a busy road, so Hiroshi Nakamura and his studio NAP wanted to create a private oasis where residents could still make out the movements of people and traffic beyond the walls. "The serene soundless scenery of the passing cars and trams imparts richness to life in the house," said the architect.

The garden is raised up to first floor level to make room for a garage below and the architects used 6,000 specially made glass blocks to build a two-storey-high wall in front of it. The wall was too tall to support itself, so the blocks had to be bolted together.

As light filters through the glass it creates dancing patterns across the walls and over a group of maple, ash and holly trees.

"The facade appears like a waterfall flowing downward, scattering light and filling the air with freshness," said the architect.

An open living room is located just behind and is only separated from the garden by a lightweight metal curtain. This curtain folds back to reveal a second glass-block wall at the back of the room, which lines the edge of a central staircase.

Residents are faced with the staircase upon first entering the house. A water basin skylight is positioned immediately above and projects more light patterns onto the floor.

A split-level second garden is located at the back of the house, while the children's rooms occupy the top floor, a dining room and kitchen are on the first floor and a hobby room, Japanese room and extra bedroom can be found on the ground floor.

Hiroshi Nakamura worked under Kengo Kuma before setting up his studio in 2002. Previous projects include the Roku Museum, a small art gallery with softly curving walls.

See more architecture in Japan, including a house fronted by a stack of gardens.

Photography is by Koji Fujii, Nacasa & Partners.

Here's some information from the architects:

Optical Glass House

This house is sited among tall buildings in downtown Hiroshima, overlooking a street with many passing cars and trams. To obtain privacy and tranquility in these surroundings, we placed a garden and optical glass façade on the street side of the house. The garden is visible from all rooms, and the serene soundless scenery of the passing cars and trams imparts richness to life in the house.

Sunlight from the east, refracting through the glass, creates beautiful light patterns. Rain striking the water-basin skylight manifests water patterns on the entrance floor. Filtered light through the garden trees flickers on the living room floor, and a super lightweight curtain of sputter-coated metal dances in the wind. Although located downtown in a city, the house enables residents to enjoy the changing light and city moods, as the day passes, and live in awareness of the changing seasons.

Optical Glass Façade

A façade of some 6,000 pure-glass blocks (50mm x 235mm x 50mm) was employed. The pure-glass blocks, with their large mass-per-unit area, effectively shut out sound and enable the creation of an open, clearly articulated garden that admits the city scenery. To realize such a façade, glass casting was employed to produce glass of extremely high transparency from borosilicate, the raw material for optical glass. The casting process was exceedingly difficult, for it required both slow cooling to remove residual stress from within the glass, and high dimensional accuracy. Even then, however, the glass retained micro-level surface asperities, but we actively welcomed this effect, for it would produce unexpected optical illusions in the interior space.

Waterfall

So large was the 8.6m x 8.6m façade, it could not stand independently if constructed by laying rows of glass blocks a mere 50mm deep. We therefore punctured the glass blocks with holes and strung them on 75 stainless steel bolts suspended from the beam above the façade. Such a structure would be vulnerable to lateral stress, however, so along with the glass blocks, we also strung on stainless steel flat bars (40mm x 4mm) at 10 centimeter intervals. The flat bar is seated within the 50mm-thick glass block to render it invisible, and thus a uniform 6mm sealing joint between the glass blocks was achieved. The result - a transparent façade when seen from either the garden or the street. The façade appears like a waterfall flowing downward, scattering light and filling the air with freshness.

The glass block façade weighs around 13 tons. The supporting beam, if constructed of concrete, would therefore be of massive size. Employing steel frame reinforced concrete, we pre-tensioned the steel beam and gave it an upward camber. Then, after giving it the load of the façade, we cast concrete around the beam and, in this way, minimized its size.

Project name: Optical Glass House
Main purpose: Housing
Design: Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP Co.,Ltd.
Structure design: Yasushi Moribe
Contractor: Imai Corporation
Location: Naka-ku, Hiroshima-shi, Hitroshima, Japan
Site area: 243.73m2
Total Floor area: 363.51m2
Completion year: October,2012
Structure: R.C.structure

Above: site plan

Above: ground floor plan

Above: first floor plan

Above: second floor plan

Above: section

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Japanese architect Kimihiko Okada has completed a spiralling house on stilts in Hiroshima.

Raised up by metal columns, the two-storey residence, named Toda House, wraps around a courtyard garden.

Residents can walk underneath the building into this central courtyard, where a staircase leads up into a first floor lobby.

From here, rooms wind anticlockwise around the building and incrementally climb upwards.

Balconies are located at both ends of the coil and overlook the sea beyond.

Two other stories we've published about Kimihiko Okada feature mountains of aluminium foil - see them both here.

Photography is by Toshiyuki Yano.

Here's some more text from the architect:

The site is located in a residential area developed on a gentle perch in Hiroshima, overlooking a far view of the Inland Sea and Miyajima.

The land of this area is developed into platforms form with several levels.

The architecture was requested to have a view over the roof of the neighboring house, standing one level lower, and to consider security, for the site is located at the edge of the residential area, and to leave some space for extension when the client opens a small shop in the future.

To respond to the requests, the house is lifted from the ground.

Like a bird’s nest, it called up architecture’s primary function of relief from disturbance.

The house is open to the view and yet protected from the fear and environment.

Slab and roof consists of one continuous plate.

The variations of circulation and diverse spatial relations were achieved by placing a penetrating staircase.

The extended plate made possible the future extension and softened the impression from the ground level.

Spandrel wall changes its height accordingly to the thickness of slab.

Together with the slab, the spandrel wall creates the continuous but various environments.

Location: Hiroshima, Hiroshima

Principal use: private residence (extension; shop)

Structure: steel structure two-storey

Building area: 90.21sqm
Total floor area: 114.26sqm

Structural Engineer: Structured Environment
Mechanical Engineer: System Design Laboratory

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The raised corner of this house in Hiroshima by Japanese architects Suppose Design Office allows light to creep into the interior.

A cantilevered staircase leads down to the sunken main entrance.

The ceiling of the entrance thrusts outward over a small courtyard.

The external structure wraps around three courtyards, shielding them from the street outside while allowing light to enter through the gaps underneath.

Trees planted at ground level can be seen from windows in the upstairs bedrooms and bathroom.

The angular interior spaces are dictated by the building's restricted footprint.

Suppose Design Office have completed a number of other homes in Hiroshima including one with wooden volumes sprouting from a central core and one with triangular terraces squeezed into the space between the inner and outer walls.

See all of our stories about Suppose Design Office.

Click above for larger image

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Japanese architects Maker have completed a Hiroshima restaurant where timber slats on the ceiling descend around the dining tables. 

These vertical batons create privacy screens between tables and corridors at the Kurogane restaurant.

Hanging fabric creates additional screens between individual tables.

Maker also recently completed a hair salon with untreated timber booths and gauze partitions - see our earlier story here.

Photography is by Shigeki Orita.

Here are a few words from Maker:

Kurogane by Maker

Noncommittally, three-dimensionally, ‘Kurogane’, the restaurant of Hiroshima-styled teppan-yaki(dishes on a hot plate), is on the second floor of the building in the city area of Hiroshima.

The owner had wanted to make a restaurant of teppan-yaki familiar with women. We designed the clean natural space with wood based on her wish.

The most characteristic part is wooden louvers. These are used for partitions and the ceiling, and cover the inside of the restaurant.

Their layer and shade make us feel depth and a cubic effect.

Passing an entrance, there is the inside space directed by warming lightings and louvers.

louvered partitions vaguely divide seats and a service lead.

Because of them, visitors can observe visitor’s appearances through them, and give fine quickly service.

Louvers play functional and ornamental role and give a feel of unification.

This design is simple but three-dimensionally, and this restaurant makes good mood pursuing of distance between visitors and staffs.

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Japanese architects Maker have completed a hair salon featuring gauze partitions and booths in untreated wood.

Reception, hair-washing, hair-cutting and waiting areas are pocketed in rounded, waist-high walls.

Transparent fabric hanging from the ceiling is tucked into the top of each unit and lights are hidden in the crevices.

The softwood walls double as a magazine rack and television cubby in the waiting area.

Timber also clads the bottom of the front facade.

Other Japanese salons featuring exposed concrete and unfinished wood include one by Suppose Design Office and another by Isolation Unit - see all our stories on hair salons here.

See also: our compilation of unfinished-looking projects here.

Here are a few words from the architect:

Hair Very by Maker

A plan in the salon in Kure-shi, Hiroshima.

Though I make the function of the hair salon last inside the compact space. I made an expanse last in the interior and aimed at the production which can keep privacy. The wall where a space settles the space divided every function, amount admonition to a lower back. The upper part adopted a fabric of the transparent material. Until I come to indoor facade from the space interior. By making them unify the material of which the whole space is composed. It was possible to make the soft spread last in compact space.

A wall of the height to the lower back will be sometimes a box for illumination. It'll be a television box for a child room. It's also used as a magazine rack. The fabric material into which space is partitioned soft from the ceiling? Illumination inside the retaining wall is received and space is produced soft. It'll be sometimes a fitting area. It'll be a cloakroom area and be the back yard, mobile, it's possible mechanism.

The whole in the store meets the function, and, keeping privacy. The production with which murmur, light and the sign can be shared was achieved.

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