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Interesting Circular House inside a Rectangle

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Circular hollows create a series of sunken rooms and curved balconies inside a rectangular shaped wooden house by UID Architects in Japan.

Contrasting boldly with the circular interior, the exterior is a rectangle. This saves the building from a mawkishly hobbit-like quality that circular houses otherwise tend to have.

The resulting circular interior spaces are welcoming and inviting, yet also crisp and unsentimental.

Six excavated spaces provide circular living rooms inside the building and terraces in the garden.

Interestingly, the curved structure is all executed in plywood, not a material that suggests curves.

The house is for a young married couple with a child, and set in Okayama Prefecture near Seto Inland Sea.

The couple wanted a house that really connected with the earth, and part of this house is sunk into the ground, which creates a view out at ground level.

Light from the sunken circular part of the house illuminates the suspended rectangle exterior.

Surprising expanses of glass soar over the rectangular frame.

The top mezzanine is a sleeping loft, and the circular kitchen is below.

So someone could stroll to the edge of the sleeping floor above and sit at the edge, hanging their legs over the side, overlooking the rest of the interior.

The sheer oddness of sitting above the kitchen sink is part of the eccentric charm of this youthful Japanese design.

A very long view through the entire house is seen from the sleeping area at the corner of the mezzanine.

The very interesting sense of being able to walk around and through this “forest canopy” of wood is enhanced by actual trees growing in the house.