Japanese practice, Studio NOA has created ‘House in Inokashira’, a single family home located in a dense but lush neighborhood of Tokyo, Japan.
This small house in Tokyo is wedged onto a thin strip of land between the street and a steep forested hillside. The narrow lot offered no real choice as to where to place the dwelling. The architects from Studio NOA dug the house into the toe of the hill, holding back the slope with a large retaining wall that also forms the back wall of the house. The footprint of the house tapers and has a slight bend as it conforms to the shape of the lot.
The 86 m2 (926 ft2) house has a split-level plan, with the switchback stairs located at the bend in the floor plan. The wider end contains a low-ceiling storage room at ground level, the spacious master bedroom in the middle, and the bathroom and compact open plan living area at the top. The narrower end of the house has the entrance, a second bedroom and a rooftop terrace.
