Architectural firm: Chihiro Ishii Architects
Project name: House in Meguro
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Size: 193 square meters

In a densely built-up neighbourhood of Tokyo, where rising land values and the tax burden on property development have led to residential plots being fragmented into ever-smaller parcels, Chihiro Ishii Architects have designed a house that circumvents spatial constraints, returning a surprisingly dynamic spatiality to a rigid layout. The building rises vertically on a narrow, elongated plot oriented north-south, just 5.5 metres wide and 20 metres deep, “climbing” up a slope with a height difference of approximately 2.4 metres. From the southern entrance, at the lower level, an upward impulse leads to the three upper levels through a fluid sequence of spaces (study and master bedroom on the lower level, communal areas on the middle level and sleeping quarters on the upper floor), chasing the natural light filtering through the windows onto the garden to the north. A system of wooden ramps and staircases runs along the perimeter, forming an “architectural promenade” that multiplies the perspectives and weaves visual connections between the different levels, culminating in the terrace at the top where the constraints imposed by the plot are replaced by an unobstructed view over the urban horizon.