House with a Wood Deck｜Custom Home Examples by Architectural Offices18Picks Author: Qurasuki Editorial Department

A wood deck is a timber-floored space provided between interiors and gardens. Frequently planned as places stepping directly outside from living rooms, they impart expansiveness to residences as intermediate zones connecting indoors and gardens. Seeing floors continue when opening windows makes interiors feel larger while bringing garden greenery and light close at hand. Beyond serving as spots with chairs and tables, they can act like engawa verandas for viewing gardens from indoors, with expressions varying by residence. Wood textures impart warmth to external spaces, creating natural connections between buildings and gardens. Homes with wood decks exhibit architectural expressions treating indoor and outdoor living as continuous. From real examples of custom homes by architectural firms, we introduce these spatial connections.

House on a Sloping Street Tenkosha First-Class Architects Office

This is a new residence planned in a quiet residential neighborhood of Shiroyama, Odawara City, Kanagawa Prefecture. Although the site is approximately 93 tsubo in area, road access is narrow and on a steep incline, so work began with widening the entrance. To ensure safety against the cliff on the west side, a high foundation and a setback were provided, and the building was located at the center of the site. Existing trees were thinned while retaining a persimmon tree as a symbol of the garden and daily life. Apitong timber was used for the exterior cladding and deck to harmonize with the surrounding trees. A double‑height void and large openings gently connect interior and exterior, creating a soft residence enveloped by the tactile quality of wood.

Two-Generation Courtyard House on a Narrow Irregular Lot Archiplace

A fully separated two-family residence located in a densely built residential area of the city center. Given the condition of an elongated, irregularly shaped site surrounded by buildings on three sides, a courtyard and deck terrace are placed on the southwest side—the only side with an unobstructed view. By designing it as a three-story timber-framed courtyard house, an open living environment that admits natural light and natural ventilation is achieved while screening sightlines from the surroundings. The home accommodates a dual-income couple who enjoy music and an aunt who lives with a beloved cat; it respects each household’s way of life while enabling occupants to feel close to nature within the urban context.

House with a Light Well Yu Architectural Design Studio

This is a small single‑story house with a total floor area of 17 tsubo, located in a residential neighborhood of Ichikawa City. Facing challenging daylighting conditions caused by surrounding taller houses, the design places a double‑height “light well” at the center of the home to deliver natural light to every corner of the interior. Light entering through clerestory windows brings brightness and a sense of spaciousness, creating a compact yet expansive living environment. The exterior employs yakisugi charred‑cedar cladding and a gabled roof, producing an impressive presence that calmly harmonizes with the streetscape. The residence carefully draws out the richness unique to a small single‑story house.

House with Forest Windows Yosuke Tomiya Architectural Design Co., Ltd.

Seeking a lifestyle with views of the forest, the residents spent approximately two years searching for land before finding this home, with a natural woodland spreading across its eastern side. Rather than simply looking out at the forest, the design is centered on opening everyday life itself toward nature. The layout allows residents to encounter a different view each time they move through the home, via the entrance earthen-floored space, split levels, and an open-riser staircase. A wood-burning stove, a cozy nook, and quiet spaces that make the most of natural wood cultivate moments of feeling close to nature. Equipped with high thermal insulation performance and solar power generation, the home continues to deepen its richness with the changing seasons.

Courtyard House Tetsuya Kimura Architects

This house in a residential neighborhood near Osaka embraces family life around a central courtyard. Planned from the selection of the site onward, it uses the roads to the east and west and the courtyard to bring light and air deep into the home. The living room, with a ceiling height equivalent to one and a half stories, connects three-dimensionally with the children's rooms and loft, allowing the family to live with a sense of one another's presence. A large tree on the neighboring property can be seen beyond the small courtyard garden, while the wooden latticework and cedar-board cladding create a gentle expression with a distinctly Japanese character.

Sakura Tree Naoko Matsumoto Architects & Associates

This is a plan to reconstruct a cherished piece of land into two residences. The lot was split into two, and houses with rental portions were placed on each parcel. The composition allows the parent household and the child household to maintain an appropriate distance while still feeling a connection through their shared site. Within the constraints of a limited lot we carefully created a sense of openness and arranged living environments so that each household can enjoy a comfortable life.

House of the Elephant Mitsuhiro Kojima Architects

A residence punctuated with a variety of interior and exterior nooks and gardens of different scales. While occupants can choose comfortable spots according to season or mood, the spatial arrangement is designed to allow a gentle awareness of family presence. Connection to nature through sightlines, sound, and scent, together with a calibrated sense of proximity that permits drawing near or stepping back, creates the richness of this house. Precisely because contemporary mobility has made the locations of daily life more flexible, the project pursues an environment in which one can live authentically while remaining aware of family and the surrounding landscape. The generous spaces make the home fitting of the affectionate nickname “Zou no Ie” ("Elephant House") given by the daughter.

Tea House Yoshihiro Ito Architect & Associates

This residence is located in a residential neighborhood near a major road. A courtyard brings light and air deep into the house while incorporating the greenery of the park extending along the street frontage. The spaces are gently divided with the eye level of floor seating in mind, while carefully designing the sense of distance between people, the wind, and furniture and other objects. Rather than clearly separating the spaces with walls, the house gives architectural form to invisible “intervals”—light, air, and subtle presence—creating a quiet sense of connection.

An Addition in Snow Country Hirotaka Sato Architects

This residence is an addition to an existing main house in snow country, providing a dining space where the family can gather and two bedrooms. By directly extending the pitch of the existing roof, the addition maintains continuity with the main house and creates a calm overall appearance. The large openings framed by solid steel columns can be fully opened, enabling flexible use according to the seasons and the way of life. The skylights and mirrors spread light throughout the interior, bringing brightness and a sense of openness to the home in snow country.

House of Trajectories Far East Design Lab.

Approximately one hour from Tokyo, this residence is situated on a generous, verdant suburban site. Designed by a German–Japanese couple as their new home for the post‑retirement phase, the project integrates the garden and house while preserving existing mature trees so that each window frames a distinct view. The main house is a simple single‑story pavilion that opens broadly to the garden; deep eaves and a terrace create a gentle transition between interior and exterior. The program also includes a dedicated garage for restoring classic BMWs, providing a base for hobbies and social exchange.

Mountain Villa with a Large Tree In-Ex Design Co., Ltd.

This compact yet generous dwelling sits at the foothills of Kitashirakawa. The starting point of the design was the family’s wish to live together with a large existing tree rooted on the site. In addition to a site layout planned to protect the tree, the exterior walls are carefully clad in narrow-width cedar boards, and the building itself is designed to age in concert with nature. Quietly blending into the surrounding landscape, it will deepen in character over time. It is a home that inherits the memories inscribed in the land and cultivates a new passage of time.

A Small House for Open Living in the Gap Between Buildings | Kigawa Row House Yoshihiro Yamamoto Architects Associates

This project is a reconstruction of a house situated within the densely built urban fabric of Yodogawa Ward, Osaka. The narrow, elongated site is subdivided into compact zones to enable an efficient arrangement of an earthen‑floored entrance, living room, bedrooms, and wet areas. Spatial continuity and separation are alternated by operable sliding partitions, producing a plan attentive to daylighting, natural ventilation, and privacy. By defining a spatial logic in which ‘on’ and ‘off’ are clearly toggled, the design realizes a dwelling that supports parent‑and‑child living within the constraints of the city.

House in Sakai Kumi Inoue Architects

This residence is set within the rural landscape of Minami Ward, Sakai City. In pursuit of a life wrapped in tranquility, the building is configured as a quarter-circle ring that embraces the agricultural fields spreading to the southwest, aiming to integrate landscape and daily life. The ring’s outer wall is double-skinned: an outer leaf clad in reclaimed brick gently screens the outside world, while the inner face is composed openly, oriented toward the garden and fields. A terrace sheltered by an overhanging eave brings occupants close to nature and fosters a calm, restorative everyday life.

House in Toda KASA ARCHITECTS

This house in Toda City, Saitama Prefecture responds to an environment of surrounding factories, warehouses, and heavy traffic by adopting a closed composition toward the street. An internal courtyard brings in daylight and natural ventilation while maintaining separation from the exterior, creating a calm residential environment. By engaging with its context, the dwelling produces a rich, inward‑focused living realm.

House on the North Side of Chigasaki East Coast Tada Architectural Design Office

This is a two-generation house built along Yūzō Street in Chigasaki. It was planned with the theme of integrating nature and family connections into daily life while providing security and structural robustness. At the center of the residence a courtyard-house configuration is adopted, enclosing a central courtyard. Trees transplanted from the existing garden and a wood deck gently connect the parent household and the child household. Openings placed throughout admit light, breeze, and greenery, achieving an appropriate sense of distance between households while enabling rich communication. The dwelling harmonizes functionality and comfort.

ELL — A Single-Storey House Adorned by White Spaces, Like a Museum YIA Ishiue Yoshihiro Architectural Design Office

Located in the rich natural environment of Saijō City, Ehime Prefecture, this single‑story residence has a ceiling height of 3,950 mm. Although the client originally requested a two‑storey house, we proposed a single‑storey dwelling that achieves the sense of openness of a double‑height atrium. High ceilings, southern daylighting, and a ventilation strategy using clerestory windows produce a spacious, comfortable living environment. Beyond an approach enveloped by the large roof are an entrance facing the courtyard and a space for displaying bicycles. A nure‑en (shallow covered veranda) gently links interior and exterior, bringing a generous spatial continuity to daily life. The home carefully shapes the sense of ease and expansiveness that its height provides.

House in Saito Aohoku ARCHIXXX Satoru Shinno Architectural Design

This home is located on a sloping site in a newly developed new town. Making use of the difference in elevation, terraces were provided for each room on the second floor and for the bathrooms, bringing the expansive views characteristic of a sloping site into everyday life. A soundproofed hobby room in the semi-basement accommodates a wide range of activities, including concerts, golf practice, and a play area for the children. It is a home rich in activities, allowing the family to make the most of their weekends without leaving the house.

nestle: single-storey house in Ishioka e do design architects

This single‑storey dwelling was built on a lot adjacent to the wife’s family home, designed for the family and their dog. The couple, who relocated from Shonan, chose to live near the sea when remote work became an opportunity. Seeking an environment for the husband who enjoys surfing and for their dog to run freely in the garden, they created a new place to live. Centered on an LDK (living–dining–kitchen) that opens onto a south‑facing wood deck, the layout is organized like an open‑plan, one‑room arrangement in which the various spaces are gently connected. It is a "nestle" home where the family naturally comes together and cultivates tranquil time.