Houzz Tour: A Sunlit, Classic Japanese House
Traditional Japanese architectural forms like a dirt-floor doma space put this home's owners in touch with nature
This plot once had only a small shed for storing farm equipment or taking a quick break. The owners spent most of their time in Tokyo, taking a train to the countryside town of Tsuchiura on weekend days to work in their field. In time they realised they wanted to be able to stay here overnight, so they went to the open house of a local construction firm that specialises in wooden buildings, Atelier Kiraku. Traditional Japanese wooden homes were built with good airflow in mind, and as this was at the top of the couple’s wish list, they commissioned one from architect Takuya Iwase.
This single-story house has a gabled roof in order to let as much sunlight as possible into the northern field. Its long eaves protect the cedar walls, window frames, and doors, while also blocking the bright summer sun and helping keep heat in the dirt floor in the winter.
See these sloping roof styles
See these sloping roof styles
The bathroom is just to the left of the entrance. Its door and cypress bathtub were made by the same craftsmen. The ceiling is fitted with cedar boards. A small garden with local plants can be seen from the window.
Here the owners can enjoy a relaxing hot bath with aromatic cypress incense, accompanied by the soothing cries of insects and the rustling of leaves.
Here’s how to give your bathroom a spa-like treatment
Here the owners can enjoy a relaxing hot bath with aromatic cypress incense, accompanied by the soothing cries of insects and the rustling of leaves.
Here’s how to give your bathroom a spa-like treatment
The dirt floor continues from the entrance towards the home’s central corridor. The latter is paved with a Japanese tuff stone, which is notable for its texture: It is full of small holes, but has a smooth, scratch-resistant surface. The stone’s gray color unobtrusively separates different zones within the open space.
This corridor guides fresh air through the home and towards the southern garden. The house was built around this passageway, with the living room to the left, and a kitchen and Japanese-style bedroom to the right.
This corridor guides fresh air through the home and towards the southern garden. The house was built around this passageway, with the living room to the left, and a kitchen and Japanese-style bedroom to the right.
The cedar boards that make up the living room floor are 40 millimetres thick. The craftsmen often receive requests for these kinds of thick floorboards, as they absorb moisture and heat well, and are comfortable to walk on barefoot. So, they have developed a close relationship with the local sawmill, and were able to source quality materials.
A wood-burning stove, a writing desk and bookshelves take up one corner of the open space: Even a calligraphy brush moves more easily when the writer can enjoy the refreshing aroma of grass carried in on the wind.
A wood-burning stove, a writing desk and bookshelves take up one corner of the open space: Even a calligraphy brush moves more easily when the writer can enjoy the refreshing aroma of grass carried in on the wind.
The kitchen and the area to the left of the central passage have a hard-packed dirt floor that contains local decomposed granite and cement. In Japan, it is customary for both guests and inhabitants to remove their shoes when entering the house. However, shoes may be worn in the doma, a space defined by this kind of soil floor, which is both physically and metaphorically transitional between inside and out.
In this house, therefore, the kitchen was made part of the doma space, so that the owners can prepare the vegetables they’ve harvested without having to remove their shoes. In this it once again follows Japanese architectural tradition, as historical doma spaces often incorporated a cooking stove.
The stainless steel counter and sink resemble a farmer’s workbench in their simplicity. The rest of the kitchen cabinets are made of wood. The owners eat vegetables they have grown themselves on a folding table and chairs they bring out for meals.
Here’s how to let your kitchen sizzle with steel
In this house, therefore, the kitchen was made part of the doma space, so that the owners can prepare the vegetables they’ve harvested without having to remove their shoes. In this it once again follows Japanese architectural tradition, as historical doma spaces often incorporated a cooking stove.
The stainless steel counter and sink resemble a farmer’s workbench in their simplicity. The rest of the kitchen cabinets are made of wood. The owners eat vegetables they have grown themselves on a folding table and chairs they bring out for meals.
Here’s how to let your kitchen sizzle with steel
The bedroom opens onto a veranda and features a walk-in closet at the back. The walls’ calming colours were selected by the owners.
Iwase likes his clients to realise that the construction of a home starts in nature where the trees are felled, so he goes out of his way to give them some hands-on experience. He made arrangements with the logging company to let the owners choose and cut down one tree that best fit their vision of the house. The owners selected a 97-year-old Japanese cypress, which was made into the home’s ridge beam, pictured in the top right of this photo. It is supported by two square 8.27-inch-thick (21-centimetre-thick) pillars. A roof window illuminates the pillars, beams and kitchen, and helps hot air escape the home.
“I want my clients to experience the construction process from the very first step, so that they can learn about tree-felling and carpentry techniques,” Iwase says. 90% of the home’s structure is made of wood grown in the prefecture, and the remaining 10% was processed elsewhere in Japan.
The owners wanted a simple tree garden to the south of the house, so an arrangement of small, mainly deciduous trees was designed by Yoshimi Kikuchi, a student of famed Japanese landscape architect Kenzō Ogata. The owner says, “This garden makes you realise that if a tree feels comfortable, it gives that comfort back to you.”
There is a rain barrel in the garden, and a larger water tank in the field. The owners use rainwater on a daily basis.
There is a rain barrel in the garden, and a larger water tank in the field. The owners use rainwater on a daily basis.
The soil floor helps retain the heat generated by the wood stove. In winter, the owners humidify the space by sprinkling the tuff floor with boiling water. In summer, they pour water outside to make the wind passing through the house more refreshing. Little tricks like this help them live comfortably.
They have also kept possessions in the home to a minimum, preferring this clean, minimalist aesthetic.
These elements define a traditional Japanese home
They have also kept possessions in the home to a minimum, preferring this clean, minimalist aesthetic.
These elements define a traditional Japanese home
This is what the house looks like from the field: It melds into its surroundings.
“It was built with a combination of age-old methods. It is a mix of elements put together in a way that is sensible for this piece of land, environment, and way of living – and that’s what made this possible,” Iwase says.
“It was built with a combination of age-old methods. It is a mix of elements put together in a way that is sensible for this piece of land, environment, and way of living – and that’s what made this possible,” Iwase says.
Next to the house is an area with stacked firewood on the left, a shed for farm equipment on the right, and space for washing harvested vegetables in between.
An excellent bit of artisanal handiwork, this house is an embodiment of the ideal of simple beauty. Bringing together the environment, time-tested construction techniques and life lessons allows its inhabitants to live at one with nature.
Read more:
10 Unconventional Homes From Around the World
Tell us:
What did you like the most about this home? Tell us in the Comments below.
An excellent bit of artisanal handiwork, this house is an embodiment of the ideal of simple beauty. Bringing together the environment, time-tested construction techniques and life lessons allows its inhabitants to live at one with nature.
Read more:
10 Unconventional Homes From Around the World
Tell us:
What did you like the most about this home? Tell us in the Comments below.
Who lives here: A married couple with a child
Location: Tsuchiura City, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan
Site area: 2,420 square feet (224.83 square metres)
Total floor area: 960 square feet (89.43 square metres)
Floor plan: Kitchen, living room, Japanese-style room, walk-in closet, pantry, loft, washroom, bathroom
Design: Takuya Iwase Architect & Associates
Construction: Atelier Kiraku
Completion date: 2015
Having visited the plot regularly for a decade, the couple decided they wanted to be able to spend more time here, working in the field when it’s sunny and reading books under the roof when it rains. The owners told the architect that they wanted a house that’s as plain as possible – essentially, an extension of their shed.
The house is the embodiment of old Japanese ideals. Iwase remembers the couple citing a passage from a fourteenth-century Japanese work, Essays in Idleness by Kenkō Yoshida: “A house should be built with summer in mind.” The word doma, which means “dirt floor” but also refers to a transitional indoor-outdoor space, likewise appeared in their written request multiple times, making their vision for a house that would be at one with the surrounding nature as clear as day.