Homes with Gardens｜Custom Home Examples by Architectural Offices23Picks Author: Qurasuki Editorial Department

In a home with a garden, the garden is not merely an external space; how it is integrated as an integral part of the dwelling defines the impression of the interior. There are various expressions of the relationship between architecture and nature, such as layouts framing greenery from the living or dining areas, or incorporating terraces between the indoor space and the garden. Through planted views seen through windows and the changing interplay of light and breeze brought indoors, residents can feel the shifting of seasons in their daily lives. The sense of spatial expansiveness created by the proximity and visual connection to the garden is another major appeal. We introduce custom-built examples by architectural firms to showcase how the relationship between the garden and architecture is expressed in real homes.

A Home in San’in Tetsuya Kimura Architects

This dignified single-story home stands on a site bordered by roads on two sides. Gardens are placed throughout the plan to provide ventilation and natural light, while arranging the rooms in a staggered configuration along the main garden creates expansive views and a rich, looping circulation route. The broad roof with its deep eaves generously envelops the interior, and light from the skylights is softly diffused through the shoji screens and walls. The careful layering of material textures and shadows creates a home whose character deepens with time.

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.

Higashiura House Kota Goto Architectural Studio

A residence sited in a longstanding residential neighborhood on the Chita Peninsula. The design gives form to the owner's wish for a living arrangement with a sunken kotatsu while valuing connections to the local community. By raising part of the living-room floor to create a sunken-kotatsu and offsetting southern sightlines from interior views, the scheme achieves both openness and privacy. The extensive use of solid cedar enriches the space as it matures. The house is designed to integrate gently with the surrounding streetscape and to grow alongside the local landscape.

Satoyama House Yosuke Tomiya Architectural Design Co., Ltd.

Planned from the outset with the search for the site, this home brings the natural beauty of Hokkaido within easy reach while its residents work in the city. Set on elevated ground in the suburbs of Sapporo, the house is positioned toward the north of the site, securing a spacious garden to the south. Large windows connect the garden with the interior, while views of a ski resort unfold from the living room. In addition to the double-height LDK, a generous earthen-floored entry space, and efficient household circulation, the home features high insulation and airtightness performance, along with a hybrid heating system. Enjoying the wood-burning stove and snowy landscapes, it balances the changing seasons with comfortable everyday living.

House in Machida Mochizuki Architectural Atelier

Although the site was located along a major road, it offered a quiet setting surrounded by trees. Carefully considering the relationship between the road to the north, the main house to the south, and the existing garden, we planned a reassuring L-shaped single-story home. The entrance is placed at the center, with the rooms arranged around the living room, while a workspace along the corridor provides views and airflow toward the north. Enveloped by a deep-eaved single-slope roof, the space features wood-clad ceilings and white walls that create a calm, gentle character. The deck beneath the eaves will also offer the same comfortable, sun-warmed setting as the engawa veranda of the old main house.

starry *studioLOOP Architects

Located in the suburbs of Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture, this home connects the lives of three generations. By placing the LDK at the center and arranging the rooms to extend radially, it creates a hub of interaction where family members can naturally sense one another’s presence. Double-height spaces to the north and south invite light and air, while low openings guide views toward the garden and large north-facing windows frame views of the sky. Its windmill-like, articulated form embraces the changing seasons and the richness of everyday life.

Residence in Niihama Masahiko Sawamura Architect and Associates

Nordic-style residence

Residence at Myokoji-dai Naoko Matsumoto Architects & Associates

A split-level residence built on a hill in Yokohama that enjoys abundant views. By taking advantage of the site's level differences in the spatial arrangement, the design reconciles expansive vistas from each level with privacy. Tapestries and small objects that reflect time spent living abroad add color to the spaces, and a well-appointed library is located on the upper floor. It is a distinctive home where the occupant's memories and interests are cherished, and views and daily life are harmonized.

House on a Sloping Street Tenkosha First-Class Architects Office

This is a new residence planned in a quiet residential neighborhood of Shiroyama, Odawara City, Kanagawa Prefecture. Although the site is approximately 93 tsubo in area, road access is narrow and on a steep incline, so work began with widening the entrance. To ensure safety against the cliff on the west side, a high foundation and a setback were provided, and the building was located at the center of the site. Existing trees were thinned while retaining a persimmon tree as a symbol of the garden and daily life. Apitong timber was used for the exterior cladding and deck to harmonize with the surrounding trees. A double‑height void and large openings gently connect interior and exterior, creating a soft residence enveloped by the tactile quality of wood.

House in Hirakata Kumi Inoue Architects

This is a two-family residence sited on an elevated site in Hirakata City. The parent household relocated to an annex, and a new home for the child household was planned on the former main-house site. With the theme of sharing the abundant greenery and views not only with the family but also with the neighborhood, a segmented composition combining volumes of varying scale was adopted. This generates a diverse range of expressions in the exterior spaces and cultivates a gentle connection with the street. From the open-plan living/dining/kitchen with large glazed openings one can enjoy verdant vistas, and the layout—allowing the parent household to move back and forth easily—carefully shapes a new spatial relationship between the two households.

House in Kotani Kurashi no Jōzōsho

IH House Yosuke Ichii Architects

This house replaces a thatched-roof residence more than 100 years old, set within the old streetscape of southern Higashi-Osaka. The formal tatami rooms where relatives gather and the family LDK are arranged in an L-shape around the entrance, separating the circulation paths. The approach creates a contrast between the Japanese space framed by vertical lattice screens and the modern space opening up beyond hollow bricks, while the gardens present different expressions on either side. The tokobashira made by shaving down and reusing the existing house’s main structural post, together with the light, airy large roof that has become a new symbol of the neighborhood, conveys the continuation of the site’s history.

Hillside House Far East Design Lab.

A residence sited within a housing district on the slopes of the Tama Hills. Making use of a plot that sits a half level below the street, two primary floor levels were arranged at the street and site elevations and linked by staggered split-level connections, creating an open spatial volume approximately 2.5 storeys in height. Each floor offers panoramic views across the town, while the upper levels afford vistas that convey a strong sense of the sky. The living room, which opens onto a garden set a half level below the road, provides an expansive yet private interior space.

Villa Odawara Atelier Mana

This final home stands on elevated ground overlooking the townscape of Odawara and the sea. The existing old house, cherry trees, bamboo grove, and other vegetation were preserved, while the rooms were arranged radially around the garden. Every room enjoys views of the garden and the surrounding landscape, with six volumes designed for different uses gently connected to one another. It is a home where family members can sense one another’s presence while each spends time in their own way. Decorative breeze blocks were used in the semi-outdoor spaces, creating places where the changing light and the expansiveness of nature can be enjoyed.

House in Nishiokamoto Abax Architects

A residence located on the hillside of Kobe in an upscale residential neighborhood. The roof is composed to respond to the ridgeline of Mount Rokko, creating a quietly integrated presence within the surrounding landscape. The living room is flanked by a generous south garden and a courtyard terrace, forming an open space that is filled with abundant natural light. Plantings scattered throughout the site will mature over time, enriching the dwelling’s expression with the passage of the seasons. It functions as a tranquil vessel for living where nature and the urban context resonate with one another.

House of Hikari — A Compactly Expanding Home for the Child‑Rearing Generation Tokuhiro Norimatsu Architect

A home designed for a family who has welcomed a six-month-old baby boy, a residence that grows with them. The through-doma—an earthen-floored passage linking the entrance and the parking space—continues on to the washbasin, bathroom, and laundry, supporting comfortable everyday living. Two gardens of distinct character, a south-facing garden and a tsubo-niwa (small courtyard garden), bring rich depth and variety to the house and gently admit light and breeze. Within a compact layout it offers a generous sense of openness, allowing residents to live with nature close at hand.

Residence Living with Weeping Cherry Trees Archiplace

A residence for three generations—a family of five—located in the hilly and upland interior of Hiroshima Prefecture, where gentle mountains and pastoral fields spread. In the garden is a large weeping cherry that, as a regional symbol, is loved by the family and neighbors; in the cherry season acquaintances and friends visit for viewing, hold banquets and stay overnight. How to incorporate, harmonize with, and pass on this cherry—which has witnessed the family's growth and life, connected people, and lived with the town's changes—into the new home became a major theme.

te to te — House in Ryugasaki e do design architects

A residence for a family of three located in a quiet residential neighborhood in Ryugasaki City, Ibaraki Prefecture. The design is characterized by a composition that combines three distinct volumes—the entrance volume, the private-room volume, and the living-dining-kitchen (LDK) volume—while embracing the rich surrounding environment. The spatial relationship to the exterior is carefully calibrated to protect privacy while nurturing connections with nature and family. Through a double-height stairwell, the individual spaces are gently linked. True to its name, “te to te (手と手),” it is a warm vessel for living that weaves bonds between the family and its surroundings.

Seiseki-Sakuragaoka House Takayoshi Nakamura Architects & Associates

A garage house for two generations of an extended family, set on a hilltop in Seiseki-Sakuragaoka, Tama City, and designed to make the most of its expansive views. The second-floor living room features a courtyard-style deck, combining privacy with a sense of openness while incorporating the large cherry tree directly in front of the house as part of the borrowed scenery. In addition to a shared family library, the house provides each spouse with a workspace and hobby room, accommodating their work in publishing. Provision has also been made for the future installation of a home elevator, creating a residence where family members of different generations can live together with a comfortable sense of distance.

POCCO — Excellence Award, Residential Interior Coordination Contest YIA Ishiue Yoshihiro Architectural Design Office

This residence finds new value in circulation spaces such as corridors and staircases. At the center of the house is an atrium-like inner garden ('uchi-niwa') into which light pours from a skylight. While serving the functions of the entry and the stair circulation, it is conceived as an interior garden where plants can actually be grown. Concrete-finished floors and a spatial arrangement that blurs inside and outside create an environment that brings nature close at hand. Rather than merely lining up private rooms, the design gently links them through generous shared spaces, fostering a sense of family presence and continuity of daily life.

A Home Living with Plants Tatsumi Negishi Architectural Studio

This is a residence for which we assisted beginning with the site selection. The client had long working hours and wanted a timeless space for relaxing with plants in their leisure time. Making use of the site’s characteristics, the living room, a deck for enjoying wine and outdoor meals, and a garden of flowers and greenery were arranged as a continuous spatial sequence, blurring the boundaries. Interior and exterior are unified, creating a home in which plants are an integral part of daily life.

House on the North Side of Chigasaki East Coast Tada Architectural Design Office

This is a two-generation house built along Yūzō Street in Chigasaki. It was planned with the theme of integrating nature and family connections into daily life while providing security and structural robustness. At the center of the residence a courtyard-house configuration is adopted, enclosing a central courtyard. Trees transplanted from the existing garden and a wood deck gently connect the parent household and the child household. Openings placed throughout admit light, breeze, and greenery, achieving an appropriate sense of distance between households while enabling rich communication. The dwelling harmonizes functionality and comfort.

Multiple Living Spaces That Evoke a Sense of Family Mitsuhiro Kojima Architects

This is a residence that values each person's place while the family shares time together. The everyday is treated as a landscape through light, sightlines, and the textures of materials, and the interior is made continuous with semi-outdoor and outdoor spaces centered on an enclosed lawned garden. Children study at the dining table and can move to the adjacent open study with bookshelves, the hobby space above the living room, or private rooms. A double-sided glazed wood-burning stove serves as the focal point, and, depending on the season, the garden louvers can be opened to use the space integrally with the forecourt in front of the garage.