House with an Entrance Doma｜Custom Home Examples by Architectural Offices15Picks Author: Qurasuki Editorial Department

An entryway serves as a home's gateway while functioning as an important place welcoming those returning from outside. In a home with an entryway doma, this space extends beyond a mere threshold, planned as a multi-purpose place supporting daily life. A spacious doma is utilized not only for changing shoes, but as a space to place bicycles, strollers, and outdoor gear. Furthermore, level differences with interiors and sightline connections frequently characterize the entryway itself as a space defining residential impressions. Conscious planning regarding relationships with gardens and living rooms sometimes leads the doma to shoulder the role of connecting the entire residence. From real examples of custom homes by architectural firms, we observe how entryway doma tie into daily life and express attractive spaces.

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.

SOMMELIER FLAT kurachiffon Miki Takiuchi First-Class Architect’s Office

This renovation reinterprets a 33-year-old, 102-square-meter condominium apartment with a garden to suit the family’s lifestyle. The layout was reconfigured as an open, airy plan through which light and breezes can pass, while the diagonally positioned living room door guides the eye toward the greenery of the garden. The kitchen counter, positioned at the center of the home, brings together features that support household tasks, work, and the children’s development. By carefully organizing storage and circulation, the renovation creates a home that comfortably supports the demands of everyday life.

House in Tomio Kumi Inoue Architects

This residence, built in a housing area of Tomio in Nara City where the cohesive streetscape characteristic of a scenic conservation district prevails, incorporates separate ateliers for each of the spouses. Planned as a place to accommodate the family’s daily life, hobbies, and creative activities, the design carefully reflects the occupants’ personalities in the architecture. While emphasizing harmony with the surrounding landscape, it possesses a rich, non-uniform expression and aims to bring color and vitality to the neighborhood through diverse modes of living.

Urban Folk House Tatsumi Negishi Architectural Studio

This residence was planned to reconcile the opposing requests of a wife who loves antiques and desired a home reminiscent of a traditional folk house, and her son who sought a robust dwelling of exposed cast-in-place reinforced concrete (RC). Beyond a contemporary exposed-concrete gateway is fitted an antique storehouse door; when opened it leads into a double-height space where an earthen doma finished with arakida clay spreads out. Reclaimed timber beams and Japanese cedar plank flooring, carefully selected in Nagano, bring a sense of nostalgia and tranquility even within the city, creating a home in which the passage of time can be felt gently.

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.

Nishidaikaidō House Kota Goto Architectural Studio

A residence located in a housing area of Ichinomiya. The site faces a busy road and a kindergarten to the east, so it was necessary to moderate external views and environmental influences. By placing a substantial wall on the east and limiting openings, while arranging a central courtyard and a small interior courtyard, the design screens views from the outside while introducing nature into the house. The exterior presents a calm, reserved presence, whereas the interior opens up to garden-enclosed spaces. Strategically placed eaves attenuate solar gain and rain, and the living room enjoys an undisturbed view of the private courtyard, offering a resort-like comfort.

House in Asahi Ward Coo Planning

A residence in a housing area of Asahi Ward, Osaka City, notable for the striking contrast between its closed exterior and its warm interior spaces. In response to a site surrounded by neighboring houses, no openings were deliberately provided on the front façade to ensure privacy. The neat black Galvalume steel exterior acquires an even sharper expression through long‑length single‑seam cladding. Inside, larch plywood is used, and natural light richly reveals the texture of the wood grain. As time passes the materials’ patina deepens, and the home matures together with the family.

House Y in Komae Takayoshi Nakamura Architects & Associates

This home incorporates a motorcycle garage for a cherished Harley-Davidson into the entrance. By sharing the space, it minimizes the floor-area constraints imposed by cost and building regulations while keeping the house compact. Ōya stone was used for the wall and part of the exterior wall, while a large movable fence that also serves as a gate creates a gentle boundary between the house and its surroundings. Light filtered through the bamboo grove reaches the double-height living-dining-kitchen area, where exposed structural members add a simple, warm character.

Garage House in Yashio Atelier Cotocoto

Built on a residential lot surrounded on three sides by neighboring houses, this home is for a family of five. With the theme of reconciling privacy and a sense of openness, the ground floor contains an exposed cast‑in‑place concrete hobby space equipped with a motorcycle garage, and the second floor contains a generous living/dining/kitchen (LDK) wrapped in the warmth of wood. A central spiral staircase connects the spaces volumetrically, and light streaming from the toplight spreads throughout the residence. Although the plan provides no openings toward the street, a bright and expansive living environment is achieved through the careful layering of materials and the deliberate treatment of light.

YAMANARI — House Embracing the Mountain Ridge YIA Ishiue Yoshihiro Architectural Design Office

A residence for a young couple who cultivate sudachi, embraced by Tokushima’s abundant mountain ranges. Taking advantage of the elevated site, an open plan was designed with a second‑floor living room and a tatami corner that look out over the expansive greenery. The relationship with the main house is mediated by a generous earthen‑floored doma and a double‑height void, creating a gentle connection while appropriately controlling sightlines to achieve a comfortable sense of distance. Interiors using natural materials—such as Lauan plywood and solid acacia timber—respond to the surrounding landscape, allowing the occupants to feel the changing seasons close at hand.

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.

House in Toyoshiki Yu Architectural Design Studio

This is a compact residence of approximately 26 tsubo of total floor area, built on a flag-lot in Kashiwa City. In a site surrounded by neighboring houses, a second-floor living room was adopted to maximize daylight. The openings facing the balcony are articulated with angled walls that skillfully control sightlines, achieving both brightness and privacy. A mortar-effect siding exterior is harmonized with a warm interior that leaves beams and columns exposed. By incorporating DIY elements to keep costs down, the house realizes a rich way of life through ingenuity and creativity.

Nested-Structure Renovation of a Traditional Kominka: House of Interstices Yoshihiro Yamamoto Architects Associates

This renovation restores a Taishō-period residence in Nara City. Faced with damage from water ingress and termite infestation, and given conditions that made rebuilding infeasible along with a desire to retain the machiya character, refurbishment was chosen. A compact living room is placed at the center, while seismic resistance and thermal insulation have been upgraded to contemporary standards. The plan adopts a nested configuration in which the core is wrapped by semi-outdoor spaces—such as the entrance, engawa (veranda), and a book repository—thereby preserving the machiya-like spatial quality in which interior and exterior are gently connected.

Iwai Beach House Tada Architectural Design Office

This beach house is located in a tranquil setting overlooking the shallow-sloping Iwai Beach and its fishing harbor. It was planned as a place to spend relaxed time with family and friends, removed from the bustle of the city. White-painted solid timber exterior cladding complements the coastal landscape, and large glazed openings frame views of the sea and the mountains. A central patio links the earthen-floored doma that extends from the entrance with the sea-facing terrace in a gentle sequence. Spaces bathed in the warmth of timber window frames and natural light richly enhance life by the sea.

House of the Elephant Mitsuhiro Kojima Architects

A residence punctuated with a variety of interior and exterior nooks and gardens of different scales. While occupants can choose comfortable spots according to season or mood, the spatial arrangement is designed to allow a gentle awareness of family presence. Connection to nature through sightlines, sound, and scent, together with a calibrated sense of proximity that permits drawing near or stepping back, creates the richness of this house. Precisely because contemporary mobility has made the locations of daily life more flexible, the project pursues an environment in which one can live authentically while remaining aware of family and the surrounding landscape. The generous spaces make the home fitting of the affectionate nickname “Zou no Ie” ("Elephant House") given by the daughter.