House with a Tsubo Courtyard Garden｜Custom Home Examples by Architectural Offices8Picks Author: Qurasuki Editorial Department

A tsubo-garden (courtyard/light well garden) incorporates small building-enclosed gardens into residences. Unlike securing large yards, limited-space plantings, light, and wind create external spaces felt from indoors. Greenery visible through windows generates natural ambiance, allowing seasonal shifts despite walled locations. Connecting rooms across tsubo-gardens expands sightlines and alters inter-room relationships. Windows, walls, and floors facing gardens generate varied scenery. Tsubo-gardens capturing nature in limited footprints provide interesting perspectives on building-garden boundaries. Through real examples of custom homes by architectural firms, we introduce how tsubo-gardens invite light and greenery indoors to shape residential scenery.

House in Koshien Abax Architects

Retaining the stone wall that embodies the memory of the town intact, this residence is constructed of reinforced concrete. Through two small courtyards it adroitly admits light and breezes while screening views from the exterior to ensure a high degree of privacy. By employing materials with a soft tactile quality, the dwelling composes calm, gentle interior spaces within a robust structural envelope.

Kaleidoscope Ⅳ Masahiko Sawamura Architect and Associates

An urban courtyard house that ensures optimal privacy.

Gray ravine Takeshi Hirobe Architects

This home for a family of four was planned on a 26-tsubo site densely surrounded by houses. By placing a small courtyard and stairwell at the center of the home and guiding the soft light reflected by curved walls into the interior, it creates a connection with nature. The configuration was inspired by the ancient settlement of Mesa Verde, protected by a canyon yet open to the earth. Changes in floor levels and built-in benches create a variety of places to stay, bringing a rich sense of depth to the small spaces. It is a delicate home where light and daily life quietly overlap.

House with Slanted Lattice an Archi-Lab. First-Class Architect Office

Built on land passed down through generations, this is a rebuilt house for a child-rearing family. Confronting the challenging condition of a densely developed site enclosed by neighboring buildings and walls, the building is set at an angle to the lot to capture light and breezes from multiple directions. The resulting residual voids establish an appropriate separation from the surroundings and nurture a gentle connection with the local community. Internally, sightlines and circulation are deftly orchestrated to create a calm residential environment that preserves privacy from external views. On a site where old and new modes of living intersect, this home allows nostalgia and contemporary life to coexist.

An Artist's Atelier — A Place of Creation Enveloped in Quietude and Tension Tokuhiro Norimatsu Architect

An atelier designed for a single painter to quietly engage in creative work. It aims to be a space distinct from the comfort of a residence, suffused with a measured tension and stillness. Eschewing excessive theatricality, it provides an environment in which the subtle daily shifts—such as the flow of clouds, the sound of water, the gradations of greenery, and the passage of light—can be perceived. The particular light and presence that fill the place become the source of creation. It is a quiet vessel for engaging with nature and returning to the canvas.

Revitalization of Prewar Rental Kyoto Townhouses | Row Houses on Showa Alley Yoshihiro Yamamoto Architects Associates

A prewar nagaya in Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto was renovated into rental housing for families and the elderly. Surface layers were removed to reveal the characteristic machiya structure and the continuity between the tsubo-niwa and interior. The ground floor links two former tatami rooms into a central living space, integrating a mise-no-ma around the courtyard with a face-to-face kitchen. Flooring is 30 mm cedar planks; walls repaired with plaster and plywood; the ceiling exposes the second-floor rough decking. The second floor was repaired and received added insulation and a boat-bottom ceiling. Existing fittings were reused to the extent possible, respecting the grid plan.

House of Scales Hirotaka Sato Architects

This three-story timber residence stands on a hill in Daizawa. The corners of the site are rounded, while continuous solid walls softly divide the highly private interior from the exterior with its public character. Diagonally laid Galvalume steel sheets create a scale-like expression. A rich sectional configuration with six floor levels includes a living room with a 4.2-meter ceiling and wooden sashes that allow the interior and exterior to become one. A Japanese-style room incorporating reclaimed materials, a staircase that brings in natural light, a study, a wood-burning stove, and underfloor heating support a comfortable and expansive lifestyle.

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.