This unique house features a suspended nest right inside it, and no space dividers besides it
Japanese architects keep surprising us with their innovative approach to architecture and design stripping them down to minimal and making them ultra-practical. Japanese studio YAP architects renovates a compact apartment in Kyoto to suggest ‘a nest within a tree.’ The dwelling sees the revitalization of a fifth floor corner unit within a 40-year-old apartment building. The orientation of the unit ensures natural sunlight and ventilation from three sides, along with views across its lush, natural context. The pre-existing layout saw a strict, cloistered division by partition walls, closing off much of the interior from the views outward. The design team opened the interior space with a suspended interior frame structure which demarcates the programming.
YAP architects realize the house as a porous ‘nest’ which allows light and wind to circulate throughout the entire space. With all the interior partitions dismantled, a skeleton frame is suspended within the center of the open unit. This new volume is realized as an occupiable object which integrates furniture and programmatic zones, including a bedroom, piano space, and dining room. Around this three-dimensional object, the design team organizes a bath space, a dressing room, a kitchen, a closet, and I totally love the solution with the bathroom – it’s partly hidden by the cube but partly visible, which makes the space look more unusual. These zones are arranged as a single connection, generating a ‘living landscape’ as if entwined in a nest. The furniture is very minimal, made of plywood, there’s some modern upholstered furniture, too. Take a look at this unique home below!
The rest of the house is done of concrete, wood and plywood, big windows allow much natural light inside
