Kumi Inoue Architects

Modern Residences｜Custom Home Examples by Architectural Offices18Picks｜An Honest Expression of Contemporary Architecture

Author: Qurasuki Editorial Department

The term "modern" admits a range of interpretations, but in residential architecture common characteristics include restrained, lucid forms, the integration of function and aesthetics, and an honest expression of structure. Designs that emphasize horizontal lines, orderly generous openings, and flat decks that connect interior and exterior impart a sense of openness and a refined presence to the home. The architectural practice, while responding to site conditions and the client’s lifestyle, seeks to express the essential beauty of modern architecture in forms rooted in contemporary living. We present examples of modern residences that are not bound by trends and that can be lived in with lasting attachment.

Modern Residences

UEHARA APARTMENT

kurachiffon Miki Takiuchi First-Class Architect’s Office

This renovation reconfigured a 17-year-old, 38-square-meter condominium into a home that nurtures the couple’s rich time together. While making the most of the apartment’s existing qualities, the storage, furniture, and kitchen were carefully renewed. An open spatial arrangement that allows views to extend diagonally across the apartment, together with built-in furniture designed for multiple uses, creates a sense of expansiveness beyond the limited floor area. It offers a comfortable, Parisian-apartment-like lifestyle in which friends are invited to gather around the dining table, enjoying food and conversation.

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.

Tsukuba Midorino House

Yu Architectural Design Studio

This residence with an integrated coffee stand is planned within a land readjustment development area. The fenestration employs uPVC window frames, and a Type 1 mechanical ventilation system utilizing the underfloor void has been adopted. The building’s thermal performance corresponds to Insulation Grade 5, meeting ZEH (Net Zero Energy House) standards. The residential façade is clad in Galvalume steel panels, while the shop façade uses charred cedar (shou sugi ban); the overall design is intended to harmonize with the surrounding streetscape.

A House with “Ma” Connecting Two Households

AtelierMA

Located in a residential neighborhood in Ota City, Tokyo, this two-generation house allows the parents’ and children’s households to live together while maintaining a comfortable sense of distance. By combining multiple volumes, the design gently separates each family’s living domain while creating a sense of unity as a single home. The centrally positioned balcony serves as a shared space where family members naturally gather and deepen their interaction. Balancing independence with connection, the house fosters rich relationships that span generations.

House in Narashino

Mochizuki Architectural Atelier

The site is a southeast corner lot within a residential subdivision, enjoying excellent solar exposure; privacy from the intersecting streets at the corner has been carefully considered. A south‑facing triangular plan is capped by a mono‑pitch roof with deep eaves. On the ground floor the living‑dining‑kitchen (LDK), bedroom, wet‑areas and a family cloakroom and storage are arranged to optimize domestic circulation; the second floor accommodates children’s rooms and a study. A slightly sunken living room overlooks the garden through low‑level windows and includes a secluded retreat at the rear, with carpeted flooring. The exterior is finished in Shirasu plaster, and the building’s thermal insulation and airtightness have been addressed with attention to environmental impact and energy performance.

House in Habikino

Coo Planning

A single-storey timber house on a corner lot in Habikino City, Osaka Prefecture. The plan was revised to eliminate a second floor, utilizing the gable roof pitch to create sloped ceilings and an open spatial quality. The LDK is arranged in a staggered sequence around a courtyard, providing extended sightlines and diverse living zones. Private rooms are dispersed to maintain appropriate distances between family members. The interior is finished in a restrained black palette for a calm, hotel-like atmosphere.

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.

Tsujido House

Takayoshi Nakamura Architects & Associates

Tsujido House is a residence in a residential neighborhood of Tsujido, where the double-height space and loft create a three-dimensional sense of spaciousness. With sightlines extending from the LDK to the second floor and loft, the compact home achieves a generous sense of openness. Light and air are drawn throughout the house, creating a comfortable living environment. Abundant wood lends warmth and softness to the interiors, while tile accents add a measured sense of refinement and tension, bringing together warmth and sophistication.

House in Tondabayashi

Kumi Inoue Architects

This residence weaves a new living environment while inheriting the existing house’s furniture and lighting, garden stones, and plantings. With the theme of providing appropriate places for both the occupants and their belongings, we carefully designed a comfortable spatial relationship for a mother and daughter. The living–dining–kitchen (LDK) is placed at the center of the home, with private rooms arranged around it. Alcove spaces that connect the private rooms act as places to accommodate old and new furniture and fittings, generating a rich sense of depth in the space. The inherited garden stones and hedgerow resonate with the new architecture, forming a warm home that gently links memory and the future.

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.

Allo Musica

Tada Architectural Design Office

A small music hall planned on a site along the Hokusei Line of the Sangi Railway for a married couple of clarinetists. Located within the grounds of an existing residence, the design secures the maximum possible floor area while achieving a rare timber construction in Japan with a high sound-insulation performance of 50 dB. The acoustic environment was carefully refined to accommodate concerts and music lessons. As a place where people who love music gather to share beautiful tone, it functions as a space that richly connects daily life and culture.

Sakura Tree

Naoko Matsumoto Architects & Associates

This is a plan to reconstruct a cherished piece of land into two residences. The lot was split into two, and houses with rental portions were placed on each parcel. The composition allows the parent household and the child household to maintain an appropriate distance while still feeling a connection through their shared site. Within the constraints of a limited lot we carefully created a sense of openness and arranged living environments so that each household can enjoy a comfortable life.

Miyanosawa House

Yosuke Tomiya Architectural Design Co., Ltd.

This is a two-family house located in a residential neighborhood in Sapporo. Taking advantage of the site, which is surrounded on three sides by roads and retaining walls, the house is configured to gently screen views from outside while opening broadly toward the forest of the adjacent park. The living and dining areas are arranged along the south side, allowing the family to share views of the forest and natural light. A cross-shaped layout centered on the kitchen, split levels, and a circulation loop create a gentle sense of connection among family members. High levels of insulation and airtightness, together with a ground-source heat pump, provide a comfortable living environment suited to life in Hokkaido.

Slope House Designed for Two Large Dogs

JYU ARCHITECT

Planned for comfortable living with two large dogs, this residence features a ramp that continues up to the rooftop. The dogs can move freely throughout the home without using stairs. While ramps typically require long circulation routes and extensive floor area, this house achieves a balance of spatial efficiency and cost by providing an adjacent, gentle staircase for human use. The design reconciles consideration for the dogs with architectural rationality. Furthermore, in addition to improving the seismic performance grade, a vibration-control (damping) structural system was adopted to prepare for repeated earthquakes, resulting in a home where occupants can live safely and with long-term peace of mind.

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.

HE10 — AICA Project Example Contest, Excellence Award

YIA Ishiue Yoshihiro Architectural Design Office

The site is located on the mid‑slope of Mount Ikoma. It is a flag lot with access from the east; to the west are views of Osaka Bay, the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge and the Rokko mountains, and to the north a cluster of cherry trees. The LDK is placed on the second floor to secure elevation and incorporate changing surroundings and vistas. A transparent entrance hall is located in the flagpole access strip, and intersecting stairs guide sightlines, connecting to the LDK through cuts in the ceiling and wall. A deep, L‑shaped, frame‑like balcony establishes continuity from interior to exterior. The ceiling is a modified gable form with exposed ascending rafters.

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.

A Bengara Home in Kosei

Tetsuya Kimura Architects

A traditional house in the Kosei region was renovated into a home where inherited memories resonate with life going forward. Retaining the Buddhist altar, the tatami room facing the garden was gently divided into a Buddhist altar room and living room by ranma transoms and paper shoji screens. Walls including the tokonoma alcove were removed to connect the living room, dining room, and kitchen in an L-shaped configuration. A void was created above the dining room, extending views from the formerly enclosed kitchen all the way to the garden. Building materials and built-in elements such as the shoin shoji screens were reused, while underfloor heating and pet-friendly flooring were also introduced. The inherited vermilion-red bengara finish lends the home a lustrous character.