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Clever Tokyo House Keeps Grandma Just Half an Arch Away

Photo by Toshiyuki Yano via <a href="http://www.dezeen.com/2015/04/02/two-houses-naf-architect-design-form-arch-japan/">Dezeen</a>
Photo by Toshiyuki Yano via Dezeen

Look closely or you'll miss the fact that this new "Arch Wall House" in Tokyo is actually two separate residences. Designed by Akio Nakasa of Japanese firm Naf Architect & Design, the pair of slanted white structures come together to form an arched tunnel with the slightest gap in the center, a poetic entrance to the home for three generations of one family. The lower, single-story half houses the grandmother, while the the two-story half is occupied by a couple and their child; doors to both sides are under the arch.

Since the home is flanked by two roads, the path under the tunnel is conveniently now a driveway. The interior of the home, more orthodox than the exterior by far, features white walls, wooden floors, and interior clerestory windows.


· Pair of houses by Naf Architect & Design
stand together to form an arch [Dezeen]
· Japanese Home Cures Cabin Fever with Interior 'Tree Houses' [Curbed National]
· Tokyo's 'Sandwich Apartment' Squeezes in a Raised Micro-Unit [Curbed National]