There are two layers to this residence in Tokushima, Japan – the first is a living room that looks like a miniature house, while the second is a perimeter wall that encloses extra rooms and patios (+ slideshow). More about Multi-layered home by Y+M Design Office hides a house-shaped room behind wooden walls
This cafe and sweet shop in Okamoto, Japan, was designed by architect Yuko Nagayama to look like two separate buildings with a small courtyard and tree sandwiched in the middle. More about Yuko Nagayama's cafe and sweet shop wraps around a tree
Japanese firm Suppose Design Office has replaced the roof of a 35-year-old family house, creating a lofty new living room that opens to the garden at both ends (+ slideshow). More about Suppose Design Office adds double-height dining room to House in Chiba
A sheltered outdoor cooking area commonly found in traditional Japanese farmhouses is reinterpreted to form the open-air centre of this family house in Kanagawa by Japanese architect Yoshiyasu Mizuno (+ slideshow). More about Delta House by Yoshiyasu Mizuno centres around a triangular courtyard
This Tokyo apartment block by Japanese firm Makoto Yamaguchi Design contains 12 open-air rooms behind its tiled exterior walls, helping to bring natural light and ventilation through the interior (+ slideshow). More about Makoto Yamaguchi adds ventilated "open rooms" to Oggi apartment block in Tokyo
Japanese architect Kotaro Horiuchi cut out profiles of gabled houses from large sheets of paper to create a tunnel inside a university gallery, forming the third installation in his Fusionner series (+ slideshow). More about Kotaro Horiuchi creates a paper hideout for Fusionner 3.0 installation
Behind the clean white facade of this building in Shiga, Japan, is a cafe filled with wooden furniture and plants, and an apartment where clothing rails and shelves take the place of walls (+ slideshow). More about Clothing rails function as partitions inside apartment and cafe by Alts Design Office
A staircase spirals like a helter skelter around the curving internal walls of this minimal white house in Tokyo by local office Atelier Norisada Maeda (+ slideshow). More about Atelier Norisada Maeda's Orange house features a curvy interior and a glass floor
Holes in a wrought iron platform are filled with planted rockeries at this Kobe showroom by Yuko Nagayama & Associates for Japanese fashion brand Sisii (+ slideshow). More about Sisii showroom by Yuko Nagayama & Associates is interspersed with rockeries
Narrow strips of steel give an undulating facade to this renovated commercial block in Tokyo by Japanese firm Amano Design Office (+ slideshow). More about Amano Design Office wraps Tokyo office block with steel ribbons
Japanese firm Shinichi Ogawa & Associates added a glazed wall to the elongated facade of this house and gallery in Japan's Mie prefecture so the florist who owns it can look out into the forest (+ slideshow). More about Elongated gallery and house by Shinichi Ogawa creates a forest home for a florist
Japanese architect Kotaro Horiuchi has created a white cave-like space in his office by hanging sheets of glass fibre paper from the ceiling (+ slideshow). More about Kotaro Horiuchi creates a Paper Cave inside his architecture studio
Japanese studio K2YT has slotted courtyard gardens around the staircases and between the rooms of this four-storey house in Tokyo (+ slideshow). More about Gardens are interspersed with rooms inside House-K by K2YT
Four red cedar-clad boxes are positioned to form courtyards and gardens in-between the living spaces at this house in a Tokyo suburb by Japanese studio Architect Cafe (+ slideshow). More about Offset timber volumes create courtyards at House in Komae by Architect Cafe
Japanese studio Sugawaradaisuke mixed powdered iron with plaster to give this Tokyo house a rusted exterior that will weather over time (+ slideshow). More about Transustainable House by Sugawaradaisuke features a rusted facade to reflect the climate
A glazed wall faces out towards the Pacific Ocean at this house in the Japanese resort town of Shirahama by Osaka firm Okuwada Architects Office (+ slideshow). More about Hillside house by Okuwada Architects Office overlooks the ocean
Apollo Architects & Associates swapped timber frames for concrete and fibre-reinforced plastic to reduce the cost of building this house and studio for a fashion photographer in Tokyo (+ slideshow). More about Apollo Architects specifies concrete and plastic for Frame house in Tokyo
Movie: Pritzker Prize-winning architect Toyo Ito tells Dezeen that, while his buildings vary in material and style, the key to all of them is their close relationship with the people that inhabit them. More about "I think of architecture as a piece of clothing to wrap around human beings," says Toyo Ito
Japanese architect Hiroyuki Tanaka has inserted a series of white boxes to house rooms within the concrete skeleton of this Tokyo house (+ slideshow). More about Plain white boxes contain rooms inside Hiroyuki Tanaka's House in Yutenji
This timber-framed house in Japan's Ehime Prefecture was designed by architect Takashi Okuno with a sprawling plan that frames five separate gardens and terraces (+ slideshow). More about House of Nagahama by Takashi Okuno frames five courtyard gardens