Minimalist Japanese House Comes With 'Yoga Terrace'

For clients who wanted "a big terrace for doing yoga freely under the sun," Tokyo-based Takuro Yamamoto Architects created this three-story house that comprises two volumes open to the air. The lower volume acts as a parking garage of sorts and the upper deck serves as an open air yoga studio. Lined with red-cedar boards, the yoga terrace has no visible balustrades, except barely-there wires that run across the openings, which helps avoid interrupting sightlines and diminishing oncoming sunlight. However, a tricky consequence of having a big open terrace is decreased privacy in this crowded, residential part of the city. So, the architects kept all the street-facing walls windowless and restricted the glazing to the open terrace area, blocking any direct visual access from neighbors.

∙ Little House Big Terrace by Takuro Yamamoto Architects features an elevated yoga terrace [Dezeen]
∙ Concrete Tokyo House on Tiny Plot Wows with Daring Angles [Curbed]
∙ The Bridges of Hiroshima Prefecture [Meridian]