House with a Natural Woodland Garden｜Custom Home Examples by Architectural Offices15Picks Author: Qurasuki Editorial Department

In a home with a native-tree garden (satoyama-style garden), the garden is planned not merely as exterior landscaping, but as an essential element shaping the scenery of the residence. A garden where diverse trees appear to grow naturally not only evokes the changes of the four seasons but also imparts rich expressions to the scenery viewed from indoors. Through window placement, opening sizes, and spatial distance from the interior, the garden is drawn into daily life. Moreover, dappled sunlight and branches swaying in the breeze generate varying atmospheres depending on the time of day and season. The charm born from planning the building and garden as a unified space can be seen in residences with native-tree gardens. Through real examples of custom homes by architectural firms, we introduce how native-tree gardens engage with architecture to create rich living environments.

House OTF Far East Design Lab.

A residence planned for a couple raising three daughters. Drawing on memories of their annual summer holidays in Okinawa, the design seeks to enable the family to enjoy extended summers together. The site incorporates a swimming pool and outdoor living areas, bringing the ambience of a southern‑island villa into everyday life. Through the deliberate arrangement of deep eaves and fenestration, the spaces remain comfortable in summer by providing shade and promoting natural breezes. The house is conceived as a place to accumulate time with the children and seasonal memories.

Hamadayama Residence Naoko Matsumoto Architects & Associates

A residence that values an openness where sightlines extend toward the sky and the feeling of greenery close at hand. Measures were implemented so that planted landscaping at ground level can be enjoyed even from the second floor, bringing the presence of nature into daily life. Attention was paid to materiality, including solid American black cherry flooring and lime-plastered walls that receive light softly. The living room features the flicker of an ethanol fireplace, and there is a raised platform workspace; while fundamentals such as circulation, storage, and performance are addressed, the house condenses numerous thoughtful refinements to cultivate rich family time.

starry *studioLOOP Architects

Located in the suburbs of Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture, this home connects the lives of three generations. By placing the LDK at the center and arranging the rooms to extend radially, it creates a hub of interaction where family members can naturally sense one another’s presence. Double-height spaces to the north and south invite light and air, while low openings guide views toward the garden and large north-facing windows frame views of the sky. Its windmill-like, articulated form embraces the changing seasons and the richness of everyday life.

House in Haruhino Takayoshi Nakamura Architects & Associates

This home for an outdoors-loving family is located in a residential area surrounded by mid-rise apartment buildings. Taking advantage of the site's highly open conditions, five decks and terraces are arranged as buffer zones between the house and its surroundings. A BBQ terrace, a veranda-like wood deck, and a bath court are among the spaces provided throughout the home, allowing the family to experience greenery, light, and air at close range. It is a home for living in harmony with nature—one where children can spend their time freely, while adults can continue to enjoy it for many years to come.

A Home in San’in Tetsuya Kimura Architects

This dignified single-story home stands on a site bordered by roads on two sides. Gardens are placed throughout the plan to provide ventilation and natural light, while arranging the rooms in a staggered configuration along the main garden creates expansive views and a rich, looping circulation route. The broad roof with its deep eaves generously envelops the interior, and light from the skylights is softly diffused through the shoji screens and walls. The careful layering of material textures and shadows creates a home whose character deepens with time.

PHASE DANCE Takeshi Hirobe Architects

This house stands on a densely wooded slope and seeks to coexist with a large Japanese stewartia. With the tree placed at the center, the composition is organized centripetally without being bound by symmetry, allowing the angles and volumes to be adjusted freely according to the requirements of each space. A timber frame is placed on an RC structural base, and the roof form changes continuously through the manipulation of the vertices of triangular structural planes. The two ends, narrowing from the central peak, connect to the first floor via a mezzanine and voids, creating a continuous sequence of scenes within the interior.

A Small Single-Story House on a Sloped Site 12mm Architects

This is a small, single-story house of 12 tsubo built on a sloping site adjacent to a mixed woodland in Moriyama Ward, Nagoya. The square building, gently placed on the mid-slope of a site with level changes, was planned under the theme "enveloping a sense of largeness within a small footprint." The interior is an open-plan, one-room layout with minimal partitions—a highly flexible space that carefully incorporates daily life, hobbies, and cherished furniture. Large openings face the woodland, allowing occupants to experience light and breeze shifting through the trees and the seasonal changes. It is a rich residence quietly connected to nature.

Forest Living KICHI ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

“Forest Living” is a single-story residence situated within a dense forest. The exterior is clad in traditional Japanese yakisugi (charred cedar), whose subdued black finish naturally melds with the surrounding woodland landscape. The building is organized on a single level, with a plan that provides forest views from every room. By experiencing the expanse of greenery through the windows, occupants are afforded a quiet, tranquil mode of living.

House in Kita-Mikunigaoka Abax Architects

This is a full renovation of a two-story reinforced concrete residence. The existing large single-pitched roof volume was retained and reconfigured into an open living-dining area. The Irohamomiji (Japanese maple) and cherry tree remaining on the site were carefully preserved, and a new terrace was introduced to incorporate them, creating a plan in which interior and exterior are gently connected. Furthermore, the bathroom was arranged as a semi-outdoor space, realizing a resort-like environment where one can relax while experiencing nature. It is a revitalized residence that enhances the quality of daily life while bringing out the existing charm.

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.

House in Oku-Musashi Mochizuki Architectural Atelier

Located in an urban area of western Saitama Prefecture, this project replaces a long-held family property with a two-family (two-generation) dwelling. The existing garden, with its mature trees, constitutes a valuable remnant of greenery within the block; the design carefully addresses both the preservation of this garden and the spatial relationship between households. Retaining the wisteria pergola, the scheme provides a single shared entrance while otherwise fully separating the two households, and includes two built-in garages. The entrance and garages are located on the west-facing street, and a central hall distributes access to each unit. Each household is organized around a living room that opens onto the garden and takes advantage of the roof slope to define the interior volume. The exterior is expressed as a large mono-pitched roof, with eaves and ceilings finished in solid Nishikawa-sourced hinoki (Japanese cypress) boards.

House in Hirakata Kumi Inoue Architects

This is a two-family residence sited on an elevated site in Hirakata City. The parent household relocated to an annex, and a new home for the child household was planned on the former main-house site. With the theme of sharing the abundant greenery and views not only with the family but also with the neighborhood, a segmented composition combining volumes of varying scale was adopted. This generates a diverse range of expressions in the exterior spaces and cultivates a gentle connection with the street. From the open-plan living/dining/kitchen with large glazed openings one can enjoy verdant vistas, and the layout—allowing the parent household to move back and forth easily—carefully shapes a new spatial relationship between the two households.

Residence with an Atelier T-Architectural Studio

This is a private residence with an attached design atelier. Built on a site once familiar as a walking path, and intended to inherit the memory of a beach landscape cloaked in pine woods, its exterior walls are clad in thick timber. The timber is painted white to add softness, giving the house a presence that quietly blends into the surrounding environment. Internally, changes in floor and ceiling levels gently articulate the atelier, individual/private spaces, and shared areas. Lofts, a roof balcony, planted areas, and staircases create multi-layered spatial extensions between interior and exterior.

Matsuyama–Edamatsu House Masahiko Sawamura Architect and Associates

A generous resort house that takes advantage of the site's changes in elevation.

House in Shimogamo Echizen Design Laboratory

A residence that responds to the historic townscape of Kyoto’s Shimogamo while contemporarily reinterpreting the ambiguity and flexibility inherent in Japanese architecture. Through eaves, a through-earth-floored space, and wet-edge verandas, the house gently connects inside and outside, bringing changes in light, wind, and the seasons into everyday life. Its spacious, non-prescriptive configuration responds flexibly to the growth of its inhabitants and the passage of time. Rather than a completed vessel, the house is designed as a “place” that continually nurtures relationships among people, the environment, and everyday life.