Portal for Japanese minimalist architecture

House in Takatsuki is located in a crowded residential district, with a parking lot on the west that is likely to be developed and a newspaper distribution center to the north that operates from early in the morning.

Given those circumstances, we decided to design the house around a central courtyard and surround the property with walls, closing it off from the street.

To avoid pressing in too much on the narrow alley to the east, we kept the height as low as possible and placed the courtyard’s autumn-flowering cherry so it would be visible to people walking down the alley.

The interior is minimalistic and breezy, even though we kept the number of doors low to ensure privacy.

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