KOMINORU Design’s Small House on a Corner Lot offers a refined solution in a city where space is at a premium. Occupying just 30 square meters in Nakano City, Tokyo, this three-story wooden home showcases how thoughtful design can transform a compact footprint into a comfortable living space. By leveraging building regulations and the unique advantages of a corner lot, the Tokyo-based team achieved an 80% building coverage ratio. The semi-fireproof classification further enabled vertical expansion, resulting in an open and airy home. Through precise planning and a keen sense of light and volume, the architects have created a residence that is both efficient and remarkably spacious for its size.
Designer:
The Small House on a Corner Lot achieves an elegant balance between structural expression and fire safety, a challenge often faced in dense urban environments. Rather than concealing the home’s wooden framework for the sake of code compliance, the architects specified robust 120mm-wide columns and beams. This careful selection allowed portions of the timber structure to remain partially exposed, celebrating the natural material while still adhering to strict fire safety regulations.
The ceilings are designed to sit atop these exposed beams, subtly elevating the perceived height of each floor. This thoughtful detail creates an enhanced sense of openness and verticality, giving the interiors a light and airy feel that belies the home’s compact footprint. It’s a sophisticated interplay of traditional craftsmanship and technical precision.
The design team also skillfully capitalized on the building’s unique site constraints to maximize both utility and comfort. By utilizing the sloping sky exposure plane along the south side, they carved out a compact rooftop terrace—an outdoor retreat that wouldn’t have been possible without a nuanced understanding of local zoning rules. On the north side, a steeper slope set by a 1:1.25 regulation presented a spatial challenge. Here, the architects transformed a potential limitation into a functional asset, using the lower, angular space beneath the roofline for storage.
The bathroom, a room used less frequently throughout the day, is cleverly tucked beneath this slanted section. A custom bathtub is perfectly integrated into the angular void, optimizing every centimeter of available space while maintaining a streamlined and cohesive interior. The result is a home that turns constraints into opportunities, seamlessly blending aesthetic appeal with practical living solutions.
KOMINORU Design reinterprets the tall, narrow profile of its Small House on a Corner Lot as an efficient, passive climate system. A ventilation window positioned at the rooftop draws air upward through the home’s vertical core, functioning much like a modern wind tower. This allows for natural airflow throughout the interior, minimizing the need for mechanical cooling and promoting a comfortable living environment year-round.
The design also rethinks the presence of greenery in a dense urban setting by adopting a vertical approach to landscaping. With limited ground space, the architects introduced planting above the eaves and elevated the garden to the second floor. This solution brings tree branches and foliage into direct view, offering residents a connection to nature more commonly found in detached homes with traditional gardens.
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