In the quiet backstreets of Tokyo's bustling Meguro ward, onishimaki + hyakudayuki architects have orchestrated an intricate yet harmonious residential composition: Hut and Tower House.
Despite its proximity to lively shopping streets, the project unfolds discreetly along a narrow alleyway, embraced by the outstretched branches of a neighboring tree—a rare pocket of tranquility within Tokyo's energetic urban fabric.
The project's sequence of spaces thoughtfully negotiates private comfort and social engagement. Fronting the alleyway is a modest, semi-subterranean hut, designed flexibly as a guest room with potential future transformation into a gallery or café. Behind this welcoming outpost, a three-story core neatly stacks functional wet spaces—kitchen, shower, laundry, and bath—with direct exterior stair access to the second-floor shower, ideal for residents returning home after outdoor activities.
Anchoring the arrangement at the rear, a slender five-story tower ascends vertically through compact rooms, culminating in a bright and expansive living area on the fourth floor, unexpectedly revealing panoramic views and seamlessly connecting to a lush terrace through expansive sliding glass doors. The crowning level, playfully dubbed "aerial annex," elevates children's play into an intimate yet liberating space that peeks just above surrounding rooftops.
A deliberate interplay of indoor and outdoor spaces amplifies the domestic experience, transforming the dwelling into a porous urban interface. Small, carefully positioned outdoor areas—a rooftop terrace atop the street-front hut, a sunlit fourth-floor terrace planted with lemons and olives, and hidden passageways weaving between buildings—encourage spontaneous encounters and independent movement. Here, the boundary between home and neighborhood blurs, inviting residents to continually rediscover their cityscape and enriching communal street life.
At Hut and Tower House, architecture elegantly mediates between solitude and social connection, crafting an innovative urban narrative deeply attuned to Tokyo's dynamic rhythms.
