A Home for Living with Antiques｜Custom Home Examples by Architectural Offices10Picks Author: Qurasuki Editorial Department

In a home filled with antiques, aged furniture, fixtures, and lighting bring a unique texture and warmth to the living environment. Rather than simply placing old items, combining them with materials like floors, walls, and woodwork often allows pieces from different eras to blend seamlessly into a single space. The combination of well-worn furniture textures and a calm space created by the interplay of light and shadow evokes a sense of accumulated time in daily life. Furthermore, the contrast between existing pieces and newly crafted architecture can accentuate the unique charm of both. The rich expression born from the layering of old and new materials and furniture is a distinct characteristic of living with antiques. We introduce custom-built examples by architectural firms, exploring how this charm is expressed architecturally in actual residences.

House K/S Yoshihara Tamaki Architectural Design

This is the renovation of a large family residence that has been passed down across three generations. While responding to changes in lifestyle resulting from generational succession, it has been reconfigured as a 'second living room' that continues to inherit the family's memories and emotional attachments. Retaining the existing design elements, it gently connects old and new through components such as brass and shoji screens, reorganizing the interior into a highly flexible, adaptable space. By dissolving the boundary between 'hare' (ceremonial) and 'ke' (everyday life), it becomes a home where new layers of the family's time accumulate.

Residence in Nishikyogoku In-Ex Design Co., Ltd.

This is a multigenerational renovation of a 40-year-old timber-framed house, planned for the family and mother returning to the home where they were born and raised. While preserving the sound existing structural frame, the minimum necessary structural alterations and seismic reinforcement were carried out to regenerate the dwelling into a living environment appropriate for a new way of life. The garden, which the father had created, was carefully retained, and the composition allows the landscape and the interior to respond to one another. Reclaimed timber and the existing timber joinery are employed throughout, while the design also provides future adaptability and the capacity to function as the principal family residence, resulting in a home where family memories and new time gently overlap.

Quiet Waiting Residence — A Final Home as a Private Art Museum Tokuhiro Norimatsu Architect

On a site overlooking a beautiful mountain range to the north, this is the final residence for a married couple. The project was planned to inherit materials and landscapes that have accumulated over a long period—such as a relocated early-Showa-period kominka (traditional farmhouse), a weeping cherry, susutake (smoke-darkened bamboo), and Taisho-period stained glass. Traditional materials—roof tiles, stone, earthen walls, lime plaster (shikkui), and solid timber—have been carefully reconstituted using contemporary craftsmanship. Balancing respect for history with a comfortable living environment for the future, it is a dwelling intended for living peacefully while sustaining the continuity of time.

GELATO PIQUE HOME kurachiffon Miki Takiuchi First-Class Architect’s Office

This full renovation brings together three 30-year-old condominium units and renews them as a single home. The young couple envisioned a soft, comfortable space like a GELATO PIQUE CAFE. Through a series of meetings, the wife carefully selected each piece, from furniture and lighting to art and accessories, creating a unified palette of colors and textures. Surrounded by their favorite items, the space combines the comfort of a café with the warmth of a home, creating a place where the family can spend time naturally and at ease.

House in Tajimi Tada Architectural Design Office

This is a final residence for a married couple located in Tajimi City, Gifu Prefecture. The approximately 60-year-old family home was renovated, preserving the dignified presence of the beautiful tiled roof while achieving a comfortable living environment adapted to the local climate. The south-facing hiroen (wide veranda) was reconfigured into a doma (earthen-floored) space, creating an expansive dwelling that admits seasonal breezes and natural light. With an eye to the future possibility of opening a small restaurant, a lane-like approach and a guest room were planned. The plan is arranged as a one-room-like composition that allows continuous circulation from the LDK (living/dining/kitchen) to the bedroom and wet areas, delivering a comfortable, tranquil living environment with minimal temperature differentials.

Tower of Light and Wind Kumi Inoue Architects

A residence located in a residential neighborhood in Ikuno Ward, Osaka. Street-facing openings are minimized, with a plan that admits daylight and breezes from above the central staircase. East–west skip floors introduce level changes whose gaps allow air and light to circulate. In winter, warm air beneath the floor is circulated via the staircase to moderate the interior environment. The garage and the earthen entry (doma) are configured as an integrated space that screens views from the exterior, creating a calm dwelling that harmonizes with existing reclaimed-wood furniture.

A Traditional House in Kyotango Tetsuya Kimura Architects

This traditional house in Kyotango, built in 1882, was renovated while preserving the customs of daily life and the existing layout. Historic elements—including the robust beams that once supported the sericulture rooms and the shoin shoji screens—have been retained, while variations in the low floors and ceilings create spaces suited to contemporary living. Broad stepped flooring gently bridges the difference in level from the existing Japanese-style rooms, while seismic dampers improve the structural performance. The residence carries forward the generous spatial continuity of the old traditional house into the lives of its occupants today and in the future.

Urban Folk House Tatsumi Negishi Architectural Studio

This residence was planned to reconcile the opposing requests of a wife who loves antiques and desired a home reminiscent of a traditional folk house, and her son who sought a robust dwelling of exposed cast-in-place reinforced concrete (RC). Beyond a contemporary exposed-concrete gateway is fitted an antique storehouse door; when opened it leads into a double-height space where an earthen doma finished with arakida clay spreads out. Reclaimed timber beams and Japanese cedar plank flooring, carefully selected in Nagano, bring a sense of nostalgia and tranquility even within the city, creating a home in which the passage of time can be felt gently.

Renovation of a Vintage Condominium Hirotaka Sato Architects

This is a gut renovation that carries Japan’s first high-rise condominium, located in Minato-ku, into the present. While making use of the existing architectural value, glass blocks and mirrors create an expansive space in which light and sightlines flow continuously. The textures of materials such as Italian stucco, shell-lime plaster, and walnut are carefully layered, while the existing wood veneer and marble have also been reused. Vacuum glass and a unique ground-source heat pump further reconcile the memory of the architecture with comfort and environmental performance.

Renovation of a Traditional Farmhouse with a Large Double-Height Space | Kitamachi House Yoshihiro Yamamoto Architects Associates

On the Nara City site, buildings of different eras are connected by open verandas and an inner courtyard. The oldest and largest outbuilding — a former timber storage barn — was planned for conversion into a comfortable residence. The barn had originally been built as a lumber warehouse; half of its volume comprised a large double‑height void and much of the structure was exposed to the elements. All earthen infill walls that had deteriorated and delaminated from the post‑and‑beam frame were removed; posts and beams affected by termite damage and rot were reinforced or replaced. After upgrading the thermal insulation, the double‑height space was repurposed as a large open‑plan living/dining/kitchen (LDK). Surrounding this space, a guest tatami room, bedroom, sanitary/wet areas (bathroom and laundry), storage, and a dedicated room for cats were arranged.