The stairwell ascending through the centre of this Tokyo house is illuminated from a skylight and glows through translucent glass partitions.

Designed by Japanese firm Takehiko Nez Architects, the three-storey residence has a stark interior of unfinished plywood and streaky white paint.

The house is named Urban Hut and has an open-plan layout on each floor that will accommodate a brother and sister.

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Photography is by Takumi Ota.

The following text is from Takehiko Nez:

Urban Hut

The young clients, sister and brother, lost parents at their teens, lived in the downtown Tokyo. Modest, rough and tough house to have a strong hold on the changes of the times like weeds is suitable for them.

The house without finish on façade stands in disordered scenery of typical downtown.
It was required maximum floor in the compact box on 30 square meters’ site and basic performance as a private house.

The central staircase with the roof light sends sunlight to each spaces through the studs and stairs rising to the top floor without a landing to the middle floor.

The partitions of translucent glass and plywood give the adequate relationship and privacy in the two completely different rhythm and pattern of life.

It can be called an urban vernacular house that is compactly made by the raw material like a corrugated cardboard house, made with skin and born like a hut, stacked with thin objects and narrow spaces in the tiny lot.

If the house’s magnetism is not greatest at completion but greater gradually for the lifespan, creator’s role of the house should be inherited from architects to residents to accustom itself to their lifestyle.

Tolerance letting residents’ imagination intervene is designed as stacking spaces with half scale, shallow blank gap, and incomplete finishes. It is pleased that clients are managing to live comfortably with unexpected discovery beyond the pre-established imagination.

Architect: Takehiko Nez Architects

Status: completed July 2011
Location: Tokyo, Japan

Collaborators:
Structure: ASA
Contractor: Shinei

Site area: 30.37sqm
Total floor area: 44.26sqm