Garage Houses｜Custom-built homes by architecture firms7Picks｜A Home for Living with Your Beloved Car

For those who regard their automobile not merely as a means of transport but as an object to be viewed, maintained, and cherished in daily life, a garage house represents a transformative housing typology. The design of an inner garage requires specialist consideration of exhaust ventilation strategies, floor finishes, the means of connection to habitable spaces, fire compartmentation and compliance, and circulation planning for storing multiple vehicles, among other technical issues. Architectural practices undertake detailed interviews regarding vehicle types and quantities, maintenance habits, and how clients wish to spend time in the garage, and from that develop garage-house designs in which car and domestic life are naturally integrated. This text introduces case studies of residences that enable a fulfilling daily life alongside one’s car.

This residence is sited on a plot in Fukushima Ward, Osaka, with a narrow street frontage and bounded on three sides by tall office buildings and apartment blocks. The exterior walls are clad with Solido from KMEW. By employing 6 mm phosphated steel plates for the balcony coping and the under‑eaves trim, the detailing is resolved cleanly and without visual discordance.

Situated on a rectangular site in Naruto, Tokushima Prefecture, the residence fronts a 6.0 m wide road to the south and places a built-in garage for car and bicycle storage toward the street. While the garage roof affords views of fireworks, the street-facing presence is softened by arranging front-to-back volumes of differing heights and by composing a black exterior skin with white interior surfaces. An interior courtyard is inserted to secure a flat sequence of movement—street → garage → courtyard → living room → bedroom—while a projecting portion facing the street contains a tatami alcove and a loft.

Approximately one hour from Tokyo, this residence is situated on a generous, verdant suburban site. Designed by a German–Japanese couple as their new home for the post‑retirement phase, the project integrates the garden and house while preserving existing mature trees so that each window frames a distinct view. The main house is a simple single‑story pavilion that opens broadly to the garden; deep eaves and a terrace create a gentle transition between interior and exterior. The program also includes a dedicated garage for restoring classic BMWs, providing a base for hobbies and social exchange.

This garage house is planned for a corner lot of approximately 30 tsubo (about 99 m²). A split-level (skip-floor) arrangement that leverages the site’s level differences mitigates moisture and water ingress from the culvert beneath the sidewalk while creating a variety of interior spaces. The program includes a well-lit covered garage, a living room with a sloped ceiling, a dining area with generous ceiling height oriented to frame views of a specimen tree, an all‑stainless‑steel kitchen with a large-capacity pantry, a bright semi‑basement children’s room, a sewing atelier, and dedicated storage for road bicycles. The building attains thermal insulation performance equivalent to Grade 5 or higher and is equipped with a seismic‑damping structural system.

A single‑storey residence that maximizes the generous, nature‑rich suburban site. Because the locality allows a standalone garage, the parking is arranged as a detached outbuilding. The plan orients the living room and study to face the garage across the garden, and an L‑shaped building form creates a courtyard to ensure privacy. The exterior is expressed as a simple, streamlined composition beneath a mono‑pitched roof, while the interior features sloped ceilings and timber‑based finishes.

A residence located in a residential neighborhood in Ikuno Ward, Osaka. Street-facing openings are minimized, with a plan that admits daylight and breezes from above the central staircase. East–west skip floors introduce level changes whose gaps allow air and light to circulate. In winter, warm air beneath the floor is circulated via the staircase to moderate the interior environment. The garage and the earthen entry (doma) are configured as an integrated space that screens views from the exterior, creating a calm dwelling that harmonizes with existing reclaimed-wood furniture.