A Home to Live with Design｜Custom Home Examples by Architectural Offices21Picks Author: Qurasuki Editorial Department

In a home that lives with design, the building's form, materials, furniture, and lighting harmonize as a single unified space, allowing design to melt naturally into everyday life. Beyond distinctive shapes and material combinations, elements such as window views, incoming light, and spatial continuity shape the home's overall impression. When furniture and lighting integrate with the architecture, they function simultaneously as utilitarian daily tools and as components configuring the space. Incorporating expressive individuality while maintaining the tranquility of a living environment creates a space where the residents' sensibilities are naturally reflected. We introduce custom-built examples by architectural firms to show how the theme of living with design is expressed architecturally in real homes.

House in Hikone Kumi Inoue Architects

This residence is situated in a calm residential area near Hikone Castle. Although it faces a busy road, a configuration alternating large and small building volumes with courtyards was adopted to realize a quiet, enriched way of life. The “alley” that runs through these elements is not merely a circulation route; it gently connects with the living spaces and courtyards, bringing depth and variation to the spatial composition. Sightlines, wind, and light pass between the buildings and courtyards, creating a variety of places to inhabit within a serene stillness. A succession of sloped ceilings clad in bamboo translates the roof’s articulated expression into the interior, and the soft tactile quality of natural materials envelops the entire residence.

House in Matsuyama–Dōgo Masahiko Sawamura Architect and Associates

A courtyard house that incorporates the surrounding scenery by distributing courtyards throughout.

FOLD JYU ARCHITECT

A fully separated two‑generation residence with high thermal insulation, incorporating a seismic‑damping system in addition to seismic performance grade 3. Because the surroundings are crowded with speculative housing and adjacent houses, making good views difficult to obtain, a courtyard‑house typology was adopted to secure privacy while admitting daylight and natural ventilation. On the street side, the building mass is restrained out of consideration for the streetscape, and a sloping wall is used to articulate the relationship with the neighborhood. Internally, a looped circulation, changes in floor levels, and manipulation of ceiling heights generate a variety of spatial settings, and together with natural materials form a comfortable living environment.

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.

Ichikawa House Takayoshi Nakamura Architects & Associates

This is a multigenerational two-family garage house on a corner lot at an intersection facing a schoolyard. Taking the cherry trees and other vegetation in the schoolyard as a borrowed landscape, the house secures a sense of openness while maintaining an appropriate distance from the surrounding town through privacy fences, a garden, and a wooden deck. The built-in garage serves not only as parking but also as a play area for the children and a DIY space. Movable partitions allow the house to adapt to the family’s growth and changes in lifestyle, creating a home that can be passed down and lived in comfortably across generations.

Residence with an Atelier T-Architectural Studio

This is a private residence with an attached design atelier. Built on a site once familiar as a walking path, and intended to inherit the memory of a beach landscape cloaked in pine woods, its exterior walls are clad in thick timber. The timber is painted white to add softness, giving the house a presence that quietly blends into the surrounding environment. Internally, changes in floor and ceiling levels gently articulate the atelier, individual/private spaces, and shared areas. Lofts, a roof balcony, planted areas, and staircases create multi-layered spatial extensions between interior and exterior.

House in the Northern District Abax Architects

This residence is a conversion of an office building. The temple across the site is incorporated as borrowed scenery from the living room, bringing a rich sense of extension to everyday life. However, because a cemetery and overhead wires enter the view at the windows, a conservatory is inserted between them to softly buffer sightlines and modulate the spatial relationship with the exterior environment. It is a high-quality living space carefully crafted together with a client with refined design sensibility.

House of Mist and Distance Mitsuhiro Kojima Architects

This residence is situated at the center of an eight‑lot subdivision. To cultivate a comfortable relationship with the cul‑de‑sac—used as both a place for residents to interact and a play area for children—we aimed for spaces that gently connect rather than close off. Inside, the arrangement of walls, subtle changes in floor levels, and screens composed of layered perforated panels softly modulate sightlines, creating a sense of depth and spatial distance like that found in mist. Light diffuses delicately through the perforated panels, lending the interior a gentle expression. The home’s brightness and presence extend across the entire block, realizing an open residential environment.

House in Asahi Ward Coo Planning

A residence in a housing area of Asahi Ward, Osaka City, notable for the striking contrast between its closed exterior and its warm interior spaces. In response to a site surrounded by neighboring houses, no openings were deliberately provided on the front façade to ensure privacy. The neat black Galvalume steel exterior acquires an even sharper expression through long‑length single‑seam cladding. Inside, larch plywood is used, and natural light richly reveals the texture of the wood grain. As time passes the materials’ patina deepens, and the home matures together with the family.

Renovation of an Urban Residence Retaining a Kura | Abeno Residence Yoshihiro Yamamoto Architects Associates

The former residence in Abeno comprised multiple structures, retaining complex hip-and-gable roof framing, massive large-section beams, and thick solid timber floorboards. A high‑ceilinged living–dining–kitchen (LDK) was located at the center of the main house, and a looped circulation scheme was established that passes through the entrance and wet areas. The formal entry platform and floorboards were repurposed as stair elements and bespoke joinery; paper sliding screens and framed doors were repaired, reconfigured, and reused. Later additions and a detached outbuilding were removed, and waterproofing, structural capacity, and daylighting were rationalized.

sha-la Tsukuba House e do design architects

This is a family residence planned on a 30-tsubo site in a residential neighborhood near Dōhō Park in Tsukuba. On the limited site, diagonal lines were introduced to reconcile a garage and a garden and to deftly guide light and sightlines. Two diagonal walls that give depth and character to the exterior, together with a spiral staircase that pierces the center of the house, create a rich sense of spatial expansiveness. With light delivered through a skylight and the staircase acting as the axis that connects the family’s presence, the dwelling unfolds into a refreshing, softly articulated home.

Shift Block KICHI ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

At first glance, Shift Block’s exterior does not read as a timber structure; the design makes the second floor appear slightly tilted and perched above the ground floor. A tatami-floored Japanese-style room is oriented toward a private garden enclosed by walls. A diagonal staircase mediates vertical circulation, so that movement between levels alters sightlines and the perception of space, offering a spatially dynamic, three‑dimensional living experience.

House Along a Greenway with Large Windows Archiplace

This two-story wooden house stands on an irregular, flag-shaped lot with a greenway extending along its southern side. Its Tudor-style exterior, inspired by the neighboring main house, creates a gentle sense of continuity within the streetscape. The primary living spaces are gathered on the second floor, where large timber windows opening toward the greenway bring light and greenery indoors. Exposed rafters following the sloped roof and varied ceiling heights create a sense of openness and warmth. The private rooms and wet areas are arranged on the first floor, while well-organized circulation and storage give the home a clear sense of rhythm and definition.

House in Saito Aominami ARCHIXXX Satoru Shinno Architectural Design

This home is located in a newly developed new town. To protect privacy from the surrounding houses, the second-floor living/dining/kitchen area, bathroom, and terrace are enclosed by exterior walls, creating an inward-facing configuration reminiscent of a courtyard house. While limiting views from outside, natural light and ventilation are brought in from above, creating a comfortable living environment without a sense of enclosure. The first floor is designed as a pilotis-like driveway, allowing cars to pass through the parking area. Making the most of the site conditions, the home balances ease of living with privacy.

A House That Shares Light and Air Troom

This is a fully independent two-family house planned on a narrow flag lot. Large openings are provided in the small terraces to the north and south and positioned at an intermediate height between the first and second floors, allowing the residents’ sightlines to be controlled to a comfortable degree. At the same time, the openings draw in as much light and air as possible to both levels, creating a home where parents and children can comfortably share light and air while maintaining their respective lifestyles.

Ya House Yosuke Ichii Architects

This home for a young couple and their children stands in a residential neighborhood on the southeastern foothills of Mount Shigi. In accordance with the regulations of the landscape preservation district, its simple house-shaped exterior, stripped of superfluous elements, makes an impression within a streetscape that might otherwise appear uniform. The first floor is an open-plan space with views across the garden and deck. A woven floor covering in the tatami area adjoining the LDK creates a sense of unity throughout the space. Connected to the second floor through the void, the home allows its occupants to live with a sense of the family’s presence wherever they are.

komh 「ha」 hosaka hironobu architect associate

This residence is built on an urban site with a narrow frontage and considerable depth. In an environment where neighborhood commercial and Category 1 residential zones coexist, two large atria and south‑facing openings are provided to introduce abundant light throughout the home and realize a comfortable living environment. The interior and exterior, unified in white, are imbued with a sense of transparency, which emphasizes the subtleties of light and shadow. Furthermore, a skeletal steel staircase that traverses the atria creates a light rhythm in the space, achieving a spacious and open way of living despite being an urban dwelling.

Mosaic Atelier Mana

This multi-household residence stands at the back of a densely built-up residential neighborhood. To gently separate the home from its surroundings, the site is enclosed by a facade of open-jointed brickwork, with a courtyard and terraces arranged within it. While connecting the presence of family members, the design also ensures an appropriate sense of distance and privacy. The wall, composed of layered small solids and voids, presents a mosaic-like expression that reflects light, air, the surrounding landscape, and the family’s everyday activities.

NICO — A Home Filled with Natural Light and the Scent of Wood YIA Ishiue Yoshihiro Architectural Design Office

A residence situated on a corner lot in an older housing district that places light and greenery at the center of daily life. The composition encloses a large courtyard with two house-shaped volumes, screening views from the exterior while admitting abundant natural light into the interior. Large windows opening generously to the courtyard and a skylight over the stairwell void deliver soft light throughout the house. In the unified spaces that gently connect areas other than the private rooms, variations in material textures introduce rich expression. A home that nurtures family connections while being enveloped by light and greenery.

life *studioLOOP Architects

Set on a corner lot surrounded by fields, this home brings the surrounding natural environment into everyday life. Walls with “openings” are set within a U-shaped outer shell, gently filtering outside views while admitting light and wind. A three-dimensional courtyard emerges between the shell and the building, enriching and expanding the living space. The fields and woods are framed through the wall openings and brought indoors like large paintings depicting the changing seasons. Through the courtyard and the openings, the home offers an intimate awareness of nature.

House with Slanted Lattice an Archi-Lab. First-Class Architect Office

Built on land passed down through generations, this is a rebuilt house for a child-rearing family. Confronting the challenging condition of a densely developed site enclosed by neighboring buildings and walls, the building is set at an angle to the lot to capture light and breezes from multiple directions. The resulting residual voids establish an appropriate separation from the surroundings and nurture a gentle connection with the local community. Internally, sightlines and circulation are deftly orchestrated to create a calm residential environment that preserves privacy from external views. On a site where old and new modes of living intersect, this home allows nostalgia and contemporary life to coexist.