A Japanese-Style House｜Custom Home Examples by Architectural Offices17Picks Author: Qurasuki Editorial Department

In a Japanese-style home, material textures of wood, earth, and stone, deep eaves, garden connections, and subdued light shape the expression of the living space. Incorporating elements familiar to Japanese housing—such as shoji screens, lattices, and tatami mats—into modern lifestyles can generate spaces transcending traditional impressions alone. Openings framing gardens and engawa-like transitional spots connect indoors and outdoors gently, crafting landscapes where seasonal shifts are felt. Contrasts in material combinations and light-shadow gradients express residences evoking quiet time. We introduce custom-built examples by architectural firms to explore how Japanese-style homes are expressed architecturally in real residences.

A Home in Keihanna Tetsuya Kimura Architects

This home focuses on the ceiling, an element that offers greater freedom than floors and walls yet is often overlooked. Taking inspiration from the richly varied ceiling of Tai-an, the National Treasure tea room, the height, materials, and detailing have been finely varied according to each location. Cedar boards, ceiling battens, brass joint strips, and exposed beams are combined to create distinct expressions in the entrance, living room, dining room, and bedroom. The composition of the ceilings adds depth and richness to everyday life.

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.

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.

An Artist's Atelier — A Place of Creation Enveloped in Quietude and Tension Tokuhiro Norimatsu Architect

An atelier designed for a single painter to quietly engage in creative work. It aims to be a space distinct from the comfort of a residence, suffused with a measured tension and stillness. Eschewing excessive theatricality, it provides an environment in which the subtle daily shifts—such as the flow of clouds, the sound of water, the gradations of greenery, and the passage of light—can be perceived. The particular light and presence that fill the place become the source of creation. It is a quiet vessel for engaging with nature and returning to the canvas.

House in Matsugasaki Masahiko Sawamura Architect and Associates

This residence, located in a quiet residential neighborhood, emphasizes the favorable surrounding landscape and the area's tranquil character, and is designed to bring that calm atmosphere into the interior spaces. It is a home that reflects the scenery and quietness of its surroundings.

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.

House in North Kamakura Tada Architectural Design Office

A residence standing in a valley in northern Kamakura, greeted by a wisteria trellis. Taking advantage of an approximately 2.5 m level difference between the site and the road, the building is a hybrid structure with a reinforced-concrete basement and timber construction above. Passing through the entrance, a lane-like space appears and naturally guides you into the first-floor living room. Daily circulation is completed on the first floor; centered on a camphor dining table and curved walls constructed from soil of Kamakura rock, the plan offers a continuous, circulatory layout. A music room is located in the basement and a three‑tatami tea room is provided on the north side, adding a quiet, playful quality to everyday living. The exterior expresses a Japanese aesthetic with an irimoya (hip-and-gable) roof, while the interior is composed with an organic expression using stone and iron.

Residence in Matsugasaki Naoko Matsumoto Architects & Associates

This house was rebuilt when the children became independent. Priority was given to a functional circulation, comfortable natural ventilation that does not rely on air conditioning, a thermally comfortable winter environment, and the authentic texture of natural materials. The site faces a southwest road with a managed woodland to the north; it takes in stable light and breezes from both south and north, and while using appropriate partitions to secure privacy and heating/cooling efficiency, the design emphasizes a sense of unity for the family.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A Music Pavilion Nestled in Greenery JYU ARCHITECT

It is a satellite pavilion with a small performance space, planned for people who love music. By configuring approximately two-thirds of the building as a sloped, double-height volume, a generous interior was achieved while keeping the overall height restrained. The roof form, which sits quietly within the surrounding context, is directly employed in the interior acoustic design. The resonance of a grand piano, various instruments, and the human voice diffuses pleasantly, creating a space that envelops rich sound from solo to ensemble. It functions as a refined small music hall where architecture and music quietly resonate.

House on a Flagpole Lot 12mm Architects

The site is one of five lots subdivided into residential land 40–50 years ago when a designated roadway was established, and is a flag lot surrounded on all sides by neighboring properties. With the theme of a 'truly luxurious space' where openness and privacy coexist, a bright, sheltered residence was required. The dining room is placed at the center of the first floor, with the kitchen, a tatami room, the living room, and an engawa (veranda) arranged around it, and a double-height void secures daylight from the upper level. The design incorporates Japanese spatial relationships into daily life, creating a home that allows residents to enjoy the subtle changes of everyday life.

Urata House Echizen Design Laboratory

This renovation of a traditional Japanese house re-edits the accumulated memories and layers of time inscribed in the site for contemporary life, while respecting their significance. New places to gather were created through the introduction of a void and a built-in sofa, while old fittings, furniture, window latticework, and other elements were skillfully regenerated. Existing light fixtures and fittings were also retained, connecting the history of the home to the future. In the space woven from new and old materials, the past, present, and future gently overlap, giving expression to the richness of a home that grows together with the family.

House in Koshien Abax Architects

Retaining the stone wall that embodies the memory of the town intact, this residence is constructed of reinforced concrete. Through two small courtyards it adroitly admits light and breezes while screening views from the exterior to ensure a high degree of privacy. By employing materials with a soft tactile quality, the dwelling composes calm, gentle interior spaces within a robust structural envelope.

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.