House with a Shoes Closet (SIC)｜Custom Home Examples by Architectural Offices6Picks Author: Qurasuki Editorial Department

A home's first impression begins at the entryway. In a home with a shoes closet, importance is placed not only on storage for shoes, but also on organizing the space around the entryway. Consolidating storage for shoes, umbrellas, outdoor gear, and strollers helps keep entryways clean, linking to the impression of the residence as a whole. Additionally, incorporating it within circulation paths entering the interior from the entryway creates characteristics in space usage. Despite being storage, relationships with entry halls and doma frequently impart architectural expression. Planned as places receiving daily tools, shoes closets support usability and spatial impressions. From real examples of custom homes by architectural firms, we introduce how these spaces take form.

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.

Garage House Featuring a Skip-Floor Design JYU ARCHITECT

This is a garage house built on a corner lot of approximately 30 tsubo. By employing a split-level configuration that takes advantage of the site’s level changes, the design mitigates moisture while creating a variety of comfortable living areas. It accommodates the pleasures of daily life with a bright built-in garage, a living room with a sloped ceiling, a dining area overlooking a specimen/symbol tree, an all‑stainless steel kitchen, a large-capacity pantry, and dedicated spaces such as a sewing studio and storage for road bikes. The dwelling also features high thermal insulation performance and a seismic damping structure, combining provision for hobbies with comfort and peace of mind.

House with a Café Archiplace

A residence for a family of four on a site of just under 30 tsubo. Based on the requests of a husband who enjoys baking and a wife who is highly organized, the design realizes a space that combines simplicity, functionality, and playfulness. The first floor is organized around a café-like doma space and is configured so the family can live on a single level in the future. The second floor, with varied ceiling heights, becomes an expansive LDK connected to a deck terrace. The skip-floor third level includes a study, a children’s room, and a balcony, and the variety of places to inhabit gives the home a rich, expressive character.

A Courtyard House That Embraces Light AtelierMA

This courtyard house achieves both tranquility and a sense of openness despite being located in a residential neighborhood. Mortar-finished walls enclosing the site gently screen views from outside while guiding natural light into the interior. The walls continue seamlessly from the courtyard into the house, creating rich patterns of light and shadow as they receive the changing light throughout the day. The living-dining-kitchen area opens broadly onto the courtyard, creating a configuration in which the interior and exterior are softly connected. Even in a densely built-up residential area, the house provides a tranquil place where the view extends upward toward the sky.

House of the Cityscape Yosuke Tomiya Architectural Design Co., Ltd.

We worked together from the outset, beginning with the search for a suitable site, and ultimately found this home on an elevated site overlooking the cityscape of Sapporo. Rather than simply framing the view, the design focuses on creating the moment of encountering the cityscape itself. The entrance intentionally withholds the view; only after ascending the stairs does the cityscape and sky suddenly open up before you in the second-floor living, dining, and kitchen area. The home brings into everyday life the changing expressions of the city—from the morning light through the evening glow to the nighttime view—while maintaining a comfortable distance from the bustle of the city and offering a calm, tranquil way of living.

House of Hikari — A Compactly Expanding Home for the Child‑Rearing Generation Tokuhiro Norimatsu Architect

A home designed for a family who has welcomed a six-month-old baby boy, a residence that grows with them. The through-doma—an earthen-floored passage linking the entrance and the parking space—continues on to the washbasin, bathroom, and laundry, supporting comfortable everyday living. Two gardens of distinct character, a south-facing garden and a tsubo-niwa (small courtyard garden), bring rich depth and variety to the house and gently admit light and breeze. Within a compact layout it offers a generous sense of openness, allowing residents to live with nature close at hand.