House with a Tile Deck｜Custom Home Examples by Architectural Offices7Picks Author: Qurasuki Editorial Department

A tile deck is a floored space created outdoors using tiles. Possessing hard and tranquil expressions distinct from wood decks, their combination with buildings and gardens imparts character to exterior appearances. When provided flush with living room floors, opening windows allows continuous views from indoors to outdoors, generating spatial expansiveness. Furthermore, tile colors and textures enable varied expressions ranging from modern to serene atmospheres. Combinations with garden greenery, plantings, and exterior walls also govern outdoor spatial visibility. Tile decks stand out when treated as parts of architecture connecting buildings and gardens rather than isolated facilities. From real examples of custom homes by architectural firms, we introduce how tile decks incorporate into residential spaces.

House on Midori Hill Abax Architects

A mixed-structure residence with a reinforced-concrete basement and a two‑storey timber construction, located in an upscale residential neighborhood in Toyonaka City, Osaka Prefecture. The double‑height living room, which serves as the heart of the home, faces a large south‑facing garden and forms an open space where interior and exterior are gently connected. The exterior is composed simply, and the interior is kept uncluttered by restraining unnecessary elements. By carefully refining materials and composition, the dwelling achieves a coexistence of tranquility and refined quality.

A Courtyard Where the Wind Flows Through Mitsuhiro Kojima Architects

A single-story residence in which a couple, their two children, and their dog live. With the theme “a home where the family can share time together,” the plan adopts a layout centered on a courtyard. While creating an environment where the dog can move about freely, the design achieves an integrated space in which family members can sense one another’s presence. Light reflected off the white walls and the introduced greenery brightly enliven the courtyard, creating a comfortable environment with breezes passing through. The house gently connects to the surrounding nature and neighborhood, and carefully nurtures the richness of daily life—such as meals on the terrace and time spent with the dog.

Uenoge T Takeshi Hirobe Architects

This residence stands on a sloping site in Setagaya. Making use of the skip floors generated by stringent regulatory conditions, it achieves a spatial composition in which the courtyard, doma, and zashiki flow continuously into one another. Connecting the courtyard and dining area with the same flooring and gradually raising the level toward the living room creates a rich gradient in which inside and outside merge. A square window cut into the enclosed courtyard frames the adjacent pine grove like a single painting. While standing quietly in relation to the city, the residence contains abundant nature and a sense of expansiveness within.

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.

nest: House with a Courtyard in Kashiwa City e do design architects

This residence is intended as the couple’s final home, for a pair who relocated from Tokyo to an area near the wife’s parents’ home. Centered on a courtyard that preserves privacy while allowing a direct sense of nature, performance aspects such as daylighting, natural ventilation, seismic resistance, and thermal insulation were carefully planned. The courtyard connects to the living, dining, and kitchen (LDK) and to the animals’ spaces, richly embracing the passage of the seasons and family time. It is a home like a 'nest', wrapped in safety and comfort, accommodating life with a parrot and an owl and attentive to future home-based work.

Irita Beach House Far East Design Lab.

Taking advantage of a location a five‑minute walk from the sea, this residence was designed to enjoy a resort‑like everyday life. Returning from the beach and heading straight to the bathroom, or enjoying barbecues and parties on the terrace, enables a lifestyle in which interior and exterior spaces connect naturally. On the first floor, centered on a courtyard terrace, the living, dining and kitchen (LDK) and the bathroom are arranged in a U‑shaped plan to create an airy, open interior. In addition, the floors, walls and parts of the terrace were finished by the owners themselves through DIY, deepening their attachment to the home. The house embodies a seaside lifestyle that continues to mature over time.

Kaleidoscope II Masahiko Sawamura Architect and Associates

A residence that emphasizes light and materiality. Although located in a Category I low‑rise residential zone, the site's changes in elevation were utilized to expand the floor area to the maximum extent permitted by law.