Modern Japanese house in the woods looks like fallen leaves

The “Four Leaves” weekend villa is a deep breath in the form of a building. Located 93 miles outside of Tokyo, the house was designed as a serene forest retreat from the city’s fast pace.

Kentaro Ishida Architects Studio (KIAS) designed the 2,400-square- foot house with sloping roofs that lightly layer on top of each other like fallen leaves. The house is split into three interconnected sections—the dining and living rooms and two ensuite bedrooms—each with a focus on simple materials like wood and stone.

Photo by Norihito Yamauchi via Designboom

Photo by Norihito Yamauchi via Designboom

The ceiling of each volume echos the shape of its roof. The main living room and bedrooms sit under a steeply slanting ceiling of exposed wood beams, while another volume’s roof arches upwards, giving a second floor’s space a cozy curved timber ceiling.

Photo by Norihito Yamauchi via Designboom

From the outside, the roofs’ unusual convex slopes come together to create eaves that softly fold into and arch over each other. In the center of it all is a quiet courtyard, where you might imagine, a lot of good thinking probably gets done.

Photo by Norihito Yamauchi via Designboom

Photo by Norihito Yamauchi via Designboom

Via: Designboom