Hotel-Like House｜Custom Home Examples by Architectural Offices13Picks Author: Qurasuki Editorial Department

A hotel-like home is characterized by spaces where residents feel the tranquility and high quality experienced in a hotel, while serving as a daily residence. Its charm resides not only in luxurious facilities, but in the curation of the overall space. Storage planning minimizing visual clutter, unified designs in materials and color schemes, and spacious circulation paths forge clean and comfortable spaces. Moreover, lighting utilization, ceiling heights, and presentation of window scenery serve as crucial elements swaying the impression of the home. Spaces resembling hotels are frequently planned as environments gently supporting daily living rather than competing in glamour. In custom homes by architectural firms, we explore the charm of these spaces through real examples, observing how the theme of hotel-like living drops into architecture.

House in Higashitezukayama Abax Architects

This three‑story steel‑framed urban residence is built on a narrow site 5.2 m wide and 24.7 m deep. Plantings from the nursing‑care facility garden to the south are incorporated as a borrowed landscape, allowing a sense of abundant greenery to be perceived despite the urban setting. A courtyard and stairwell are located at the center of the building, configured to channel light and ventilation into each room. Bamboo is planted in the courtyard; on rainy days water collects shallowly to form a reflecting pool, creating a tranquil scene. The dwelling subtly integrates the presence of nature within the density of the city.

A Second Home in Yatsugatake Tatsumi Negishi Architectural Studio

This is a mountain lodge for nature and creative work, built at an elevation of 1,600 m in the Yatsugatake Mountains. To respond to the severe conditions—winters that can reach minus 20°C—a hipped roof with deep eaves was adopted, giving the building a presence that gently blends into the expansive natural landscape. To accommodate mountain living with mud, snow, and water, a circulation layout centered on storage was planned, allowing movement to circulate around storage areas. By opening and closing the joinery, the plan can be flexibly reconfigured into a windbreak/vestibule or a guest circulation route. The space, where functionality and comfort have been carefully refined, serves as a quiet base for engaging in creative work while enjoying the seasonal changes in nature.

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.

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.

Wind Leave Far East Design Lab.

This residence is sited on the slope of an elevated hillside with views to the sea and mountains, and is conceived for a multi‑base lifestyle. Prompted by the increase in remote work, it was planned as a new base that accommodates both work and leisure. In addition to a study designed for focused work and dedicated spaces for meetings, the house provides flexible areas for family and friends to stay. The building employs natural materials such as timber and is situated to integrate with the landscape. Openings and vistas are composed according to programmatic requirements, allowing occupants to enjoy unhurried time with framed views of the sea and mountains.

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.

Renovation of a Vintage Condominium Hirotaka Sato Architects

This is a gut renovation that carries Japan’s first high-rise condominium, located in Minato-ku, into the present. While making use of the existing architectural value, glass blocks and mirrors create an expansive space in which light and sightlines flow continuously. The textures of materials such as Italian stucco, shell-lime plaster, and walnut are carefully layered, while the existing wood veneer and marble have also been reused. Vacuum glass and a unique ground-source heat pump further reconcile the memory of the architecture with comfort and environmental performance.

Clip Box KICHI ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

Located in an urban residential neighborhood, “Clip Box” is a dwelling that creates a rich spatial experience within a compact footprint. The exterior, where three white planes interlock with a mortar-finished wall, attains a pronounced sense of depth through the shadows cast by the layered walls. Internally, a skip-floor (split-level) living area connects to the dining space via a staircase. Smooth, efficient circulation that consolidates the necessary functions provides a comfortable living environment.

＋UMI — Renovation Design Contest Jury Special Prize / TDY Remodel Smile Works Contest (TOTO) Excellence Award YIA Ishiue Yoshihiro Architectural Design Office

This renovation transformed a residence overlooking the Seto Inland Sea into a space where the landscape and daily life resonate together. A deck that opens broadly toward the sea was created as an outdoor living area, and the layout was arranged so the presence of the sea can be perceived from the interior at all times. An open kitchen is positioned at the heart of the home, enabling cooking while enjoying the view and conversation. The residence also includes a home theater for film viewing, which can be used as a single expansive space when hosting guests. It is a dwelling that carefully shapes a rich lifestyle lived in harmony with the sea.

A House with a Deck Opening onto the View AtelierMA

Taking advantage of its elevated site, this home creates a gentle connection between the interior, the exterior, and the distant landscape. Within its simple, box-shaped exterior, an open LDK integrated with a large timber deck unfolds, extending the sightline toward the distant scenery. The carefully arranged bathroom and open-riser staircase draw the flow of light and air throughout the living space. External blinds and horizontal windows subtly adjust the environment, bringing a rich sense of expansiveness and comfortable breathing room to everyday life.

Villa Escargot Takeshi Hirobe Architects

This weekend house stands on elevated ground approximately 200 metres from the shoreline. On a site backed by a cliff and trees and overlooking Tokyo Bay, an independent volume was constructed from a succession of triangular side walls. Passing through a gradation of light from the entrance and moving through the folded-plate space, the view opens dramatically toward the sea and sky. The interior, including the semicircular wet areas and bathroom, is connected by a sequence resembling a melody. Continuous plywood surfaces with concealed joints accentuate the flowing planes and create an appearance reminiscent of a coiled shell.

next — RC house with a courtyard in Tsukuba City e do design architects

"next" — a second house designed to be enjoyed from age 60 onward, for the next chapter of life. As a place to let go of the businesses you have built up to now and move on to a new stage, we planned spaces that include a studio for creative activities and an area with theater functions, a spacious living-dining-kitchen where you can relax, and amenities such as a sauna and a training room. A residence that richly embraces work, hobbies, health, and daily life, enabling you to fully enjoy the time ahead. It is "next", brimming with excitement and opening a new door in life.

Makizukadai House, Sakai Kumi Inoue Architects

This residence is situated in an elevated residential area in Minami Ward, Sakai City. To maximize the southeast-facing views, an L-shaped plan encloses a terrace. Responding to strict diagonal-plane restrictions and the site’s level changes, the design links a dark pitched-roof volume and a white-walled volume through shifts in level, creating a three-dimensional spatial composition via split-level floors. A semi-basement music room, parking and private zones are arranged progressively, while the top floor houses a living room with expansive views and a raised tatami alcove. The project makes the most of the site’s characteristics, integrating a variety of living settings and rich vistas.