With its conical head, cylindrical body, and face of oddly-shaped windows, this house in Okazaki, Japan is reminiscent of that super cool home converted from a prairie silo in Montana. But in reality, Studio Velocity, the Japanese firm behind this circular structure, built it from the ground up, choosing a round shape so that the building, standing next to a more traditional main house and on an irregular site, would create "various shaped gardens." Inside, the 600 square-foot house gets kookier, with four seemingly monstrous enclosed staircases connecting the first and second floors.
The first floor contains three bedrooms, each with its own door that opens out to the garden as well as its own enclosed staircase that leads to the second floor (a fourth staircase is in the ground floor bathroom). These staircase volumes, which extend nearly to the roof, are supposed to bring down natural light from the skylights on top of the house, allowing the person to "feel the ground and sky throughout". Of course, all these protruding boxes mean that the second floor, which contains the kitchen, living, and dining areas, looks rather crammed. But, as seen in the photos below, walking through it might feel like one were strolling down neighborhood streets rather than in one floor of a house, which could be cool, maybe.
· House in Chiharada/Studio Velocity [Arch Daily]
· All Globe Trotting posts [Curbed National]