Glass-Enclosed Residences｜Custom Home Examples by Architectural Offices13Picks Author: Qurasuki Editorial Department

In a glass-walled home, capturing external scenery and light indoors through expansive glazing generates a profound sense of spaciousness. Large openings connect lines of sight to the garden and surrounding landscape, allowing residents to feel the presence of the outdoors while remaining comfortably inside. Because the angle of light and the appearance of the landscape shift with the time of day and weather, even the same space can yield completely different expressions. Furthermore, the placement of glass surfaces and their combination with solid walls can create zones of tranquility alongside a sense of openness. The architectural expression born when the inside and outside connect via transparent materials is a distinctive feature of this theme. We introduce custom-built examples by architectural firms, exploring how the relationship between glass and space is expressed in actual residences.

Kotonoha Mitsuhiro Kojima Architects

This residence, built on a site surrounded by abundant trees, is themed around living in close harmony with nature. Evoking the scene of fallen leaves overlapping, four roof planes are brought together, under which the family’s living spaces unfold. The roofs gently envelop the spaces while, through gaps between walls and roofs, they direct sightlines and awareness toward the surrounding natural elements—trees, sky, and ground. By drawing the shifting qualities of light and breeze into everyday life and arranging spaces so occupants can perceive seasonal and temporal changes, the design achieves a rich living environment in which family and nature are calmly connected.

lani *studioLOOP Architects

This home contains a garage for four cars and a water feature that serves as a swimming pool in summer and a reflecting pool in winter. The living spaces are separated from the ground, while the lower level is designed as a pilotis-style parking space with no columns or walls at the four corners. Upon ascending from the enclosed first floor to the upper level, the water surface spreads out at eye level. On the second floor, unified in white, the rooms are arranged around the reflecting pool, with reflected light creating shimmering patterns across the interior ceilings. In the glass-enclosed courtyard, the sky, water, and multiple reflected images of the pool overlap.

House in Higashiyukigaya Takayoshi Nakamura Architects & Associates

This tiny house stands on an approximately 9-tsubo site along the Nomigawa River and comprises four levels, including a basement, with a total floor area of 21 tsubo. Inheriting the client’s attachment to the land where their parents once lived, the project sought to create a home in which its compactness could be enjoyed. The stringent slant-line restrictions are addressed through skip floors divided according to function. Changes in level and a spiral staircase bring rich variation to the space, while the distinctive roof form creates a serene and dignified presence.

An Addition in Snow Country Hirotaka Sato Architects

This residence is an addition to an existing main house in snow country, providing a dining space where the family can gather and two bedrooms. By directly extending the pitch of the existing roof, the addition maintains continuity with the main house and creates a calm overall appearance. The large openings framed by solid steel columns can be fully opened, enabling flexible use according to the seasons and the way of life. The skylights and mirrors spread light throughout the interior, bringing brightness and a sense of openness to the home in snow country.

House of a Potter Tatsumi Negishi Architectural Studio

This is a residence for a family of four planned on a site adjacent to a forest at the foot of Mount Fuji. It also serves as a creative base for the husband, a ceramist, and the wife, an illustrator, and the theme is to incorporate the forest scenery into daily life. The living area is a double-height space that opens widely toward the forest, and a black earthen floor (doma) echoes the exterior scoria, blurring the boundary between inside and outside. The building keeps its height low, sitting quietly as if to nestle against the forest.

Hybrid House Along the Tokigawa River H₂O Design Office

This is a glass house with a hybrid structure of steel, timber, and glass, built on a site of approximately 220 tsubo along the Tokigawa stream in the northwestern part of Saitama Prefecture, about 50 km from the city center. It faces the Chichibu mountain range and opens onto an environment where the clear stream and seasonal changes can be enjoyed. The second-floor living spaces are arranged with a circulatory flow, with a design that prioritizes an integrated thermal environment and abundant daylighting. Instead of providing openings in the exterior walls, the building is equipped with an environmental control system that combines horizontal louvers on projecting floors with gravity-driven (stack) ventilation, connected to topside mechanical exhaust.

SAKURA House Kumi Inoue Architects

This residence was conceived to celebrate the borrowed-scenery of nearby cherry trees. Primary living spaces are located on the second floor; a louvered screen that envelops the living room mitigates external sightlines while elegantly framing the cherry blossom vista. The louvers’ angles have been calibrated to best showcase the blossoms and to provide effective solar shading, creating an interior environment with reduced direct sunlight and enhanced comfort.

House on Kataokayama | Living beneath a large roof spanning the terrace. Yoshihiro Yamamoto Architects Associates

A residence sited on a terrace extending from the Yamato River floodplain; from the upper level it commands panoramic views over the towns of Ōji and Sangō and the mountain ridge from Mt. Shigi to Mt. Ikoma. The site falls approximately 3.0 m from the center and then steps down a further c. 4.5 m via a retaining wall. Bedrooms and closets are arranged on the lower tier within a high foundation that also functions as earth retention, while the upper tier secures a horizontal plane where the kitchen, stair and wet-service areas are distributed. A large gabled roof admits ventilation and daylight through lateral slits, and the highly ambulatory space beneath the eaves is conceived as the core of daily life, permitting an approach from the parking area. Materiality and chroma are restrained, with finishes executed in a clean, minimal linear manner.

Villa SSK Takeshi Hirobe Architects

On a site nestled between the sea and a rocky mountain in Minamiboso, we planned a residence that connects the sea and the mountains in the vertical dimension. A tunnel-like frame composed of a large timber spatial truss arch and LVL walls creates an expansive space that evokes the sea, sky, and rocky mountain. The courtyard serves as a play area for the dog, an “outdoor living room” continuous with the LDK, and a reflecting pool. The reflecting pool projecting toward the sea was designed to appear connected to the surface of the sea from the bathroom and living room. With a guest room and garage, the residence brings together a rich landscape and everyday life.

Lacy Layered Atelier Mana

This home for a couple and their four children stands in Senju Yanagicho, where the atmosphere of Tokyo’s traditional downtown neighborhoods remains. The site is a 24-tsubo corner lot, and the building volume was planned to make maximum use of the site, with the exterior walls composed of two layers. By covering the large openings with perforated metal and varying its porosity, the design achieves bright, open living while protecting privacy. The lacy facade placed between the home and the city creates a gentle connection between inside and outside.

ssrh 「ha」 hosaka hironobu architect associate

A monumental curtain wall provides an overwhelming sense of openness to the 1.5‑storey double‑height living space. The loft adjoining the double‑height void is enclosed by glass walls and, in dialogue with the large exterior openings, generates further spatial breadth and transparency. Generous natural light envelops the entire residence, and its changing character over time is part of the appeal. Distinctive accent flooring sharpens the space and reinforces the impression of a sophisticated interior.

Yama no Ie Troom

This vacation home stands on a sloping site covered by a beautiful broad-leaved forest. The large tree that had grown along the natural contours of the site was preserved, and the building is arranged to gently enclose it as a courtyard. Throughout the interior, places have been created to enjoy the trees and the greenery of the slope from various angles. This mountain home features a generous, cohesive one-room space dotted with a variety of places where one person or a large group can spend time comfortably.

House with Extended Eaves an Archi-Lab. First-Class Architect Office

This is an urban residence designed for a dual-income couple and their children. While demanding high functionality on a limited site—including five private rooms, ample storage, a garage, and an elevator—the design transforms the residual spaces created by skillfully carving the building into enhanced qualities of the living environment. Beneath a large overhanging eave that covers the entire site are arranged a front garden, circulation pathways, and bicycle parking, and a three-story atrium stairwell channels daylight and natural ventilation. The dwelling reconciles a high-density program with a sense of openness, proposing a new richness for urban housing.