HOAA’s Tokyo House Features Curving Metal Terrace for Potted Plants

This article examines HOAA’s House in Nakano, a compact 96-square-metre timber-lined home and studio project in Tokyo. Designed for founder Hiroyuki Oinuma and his family, the house responds to a densely built site with a clever daylight strategy and a looping elevated garden terrace.

Interior details read as a small, living museum of daily life. The project weaves together outdoor and indoor experiences to create a movement-driven residence and workshop.

Project Overview: A compact home with an elevated garden strategy

Constrained by a tight urban footprint, HOAA introduced the Kazari Garden — an elevated, looping metal terrace for potted plants that runs along the north side of the house on stilts. This terrace frames a garden view from inside and bypasses the street to align with a large second-floor dining-room window.

It collects light from the north without the usual cold, dim ambience typical of north-facing Japanese windows. The raised walkway also functions as the main entrance.

Its steps lead visitors into a living, dining, and kitchen area, which then steps up to two bedrooms toward the rear of the plan. The arrangement supports a bright, social core connected to private spaces at the back.

Light, movement, and the engawa-inspired connection

Between the garden terrace and the living room, a raised engawa-like space anchors a ribbon window finished with wired glass. This transitional zone brings industrial textures into the interior and modulates daylight through the living area.

The design uses movement and framed domestic displays to create a sense of unfolding space, transitioning from exterior garden frames to interior shelves and seating. Corridor-like passages and carefully placed openings encourage a gentle, contemplative pacing as one moves from cooking to dining to lounging, and finally to the rear bedrooms.

Materials, finishes, and interior language

Industrial textures run throughout the interior. A stainless-steel counter and brass-pipe light fittings sit alongside walls and ceilings clad in dark timber.

The timber’s warmth contrasts with the coolness of metal and glass, producing a tactile palette that feels robust yet intimate. Built-in shelving uses the same timber and lines the staircase and living room, turning everyday objects into a curated display for the family’s daily life.

The house’s exterior presence is purposeful. A shallow-pitched metal roof curves down to form a low ceiling above the dining area.

Moss-green render on the exterior echoes the surrounding planting and softens the building’s urban silhouette. The combination of texture, tone, and material contrast reinforces the home’s dual character as a shelter and a studio for creative work.

Ground-floor program: studio, workshop, and planter niches

On the ground floor, HOAA’s studio and workshop sit next to an additional bedroom. A smaller back garden and a planter under the internal stair, illuminated by a skylight, extend the indoor program outward.

This brings nature into the daily routine. The arrangement emphasizes a relationship between making, living, and growing, showing how a compact home can expand through flexible, light-filled spaces.

Expression, photography, and architectural intent

Photographer Takuya Seki documented the project. He captured how the compact volume unfolds a “lyrical landscape” through movement and carefully framed domestic displays.

The imagery highlights how the Kazari Garden and the engawa-inspired transition spaces mediate between private and public. These spaces connect interior and exterior while maintaining a coherent, industrial-inflected material language.

• Kazari Garden — elevated, looping terrace for plants and daylight optimization
• Engawa-like connector with a wired glass ribbon window
• Industrial interior language — stainless steel counter, brass-pipe fittings
• Dark timber finishes on walls and ceilings to unify spaces
• Moss-green render exterior that echoes surrounding planting
• Ground-floor studio and back garden linked to skylight planter niches

 
Here is the source article for this story: Curving metal terrace for potted plants fronts home in Tokyo by HOAA