Hanare by Schemata Architecture Office

Slideshow: Japanese firm Schemata Architecture Office have perched a cabin on top of a small woodland cliff in Chiba, Japan.

Named Hanare, the wooden house has a structural steel frame that lifts it above the rocky surface of the ground below.

An industrial ladder leads up into the centre of the building, while an elevator creates a second entrance on the opposite side.

Rooms are arranged along an L-shaped plan, with a main bedroom at one end and a guest room at the other.

In the large space between, wireframe shelves line the lower walls and a curvy tablewraps around a chunky timber column.

A lattice of wooden eaves are exposed on the ceiling and extend beyond the glazed facade to create a shading canopy.

Another ladder inside the house lets residents climb up onto the roof and survey their surroundings.

Schemata Architecture Office also recently completed a shop for skincare brand Aesop, which you can see here alongside some of their other projects.

Photography is by Takumi Ota.

Here's a little more information from the architects:

This "HANARE" is a annex house in Chiba for the client living in Tokyo to use 2-3 times in a week.

The client bought whole mountain, and we architects dealt with putting the electricity (line), getting drinking water with a fountain, putting a bridge over the irrigation canal, and interior design and architecture, and also construction work.

The site is located in Chiba near sea side, although it is chosen in a mountain on very steep hill on the west and the south side away from 21m hight from a road on a small mountain side.

And the house with the landscape looks like a castle on a hill after all.

About the environment of a house it is that man-made energy to avoid normally in these days, but we use it intentionally and also making an ecological environment using such as 2m long eaves for shading from the west sun though the seasons, Low-E Glass and wooden sash for insulation, and a tromp's wall for taking natural energy.