House in Horinouchi | MIZUISHI Architect Atelier

This small house with a triangular floor plan sits on a narrow sliver of lot wedged between a road and a river channel in west Tokyo. Designing the house for a couple and their young daughter, MIZUISHI Architect Atelier maximized the interior space by pushing the walls and roof to the limits of the permitted building envelope. Still, the house has only 55.2 m² (595 ft²) of floor space over two floors, plus a mezzanine loft. The interior appears larger than that though, thanks to sightlines that extend the length of the house and spaces that borrow from adjacent spaces.

The reverse floor plan puts the main living space high enough to have a view over the raised walkway alongside the river channel. Tall windows at the very tips of the triangular plan draw the eye to the long views through the house. The living area has large windows on both sides with a built-in wooden bench below the windows on the river side. Those windows slide open to a very narrow balcony overlooking the river. The balcony by itself would be almost too narrow to be useful had the architect not cleverly raised it to the same level as the bench top, allowing the bench surface to supplement the balcony area.

The master bedroom is on the ground floor. With only curtains defining the bedroom area, it can expand visually and functionally into the adjacent stair hall. The stair risers are open but as they just allow for a view of the washing machine, closed risers might have been a better choice here. The upper floor child’s bedroom is barely big enough for a bed but it does have access to the large mezzanine loft that could be used for sleeping.

Click a thumbnail to view a larger photo, then click on the photo to advance to the next one.

Photographs by Hiroshi Tanigawa, courtesy of MIZUISHI Architect Atelier. Via Architizer.

Text copyright 2013 SmallHouseBliss. All Rights Reserved.