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The House that Contains Seven Gardens

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The clients for this house engaged Ikimono Architects to build a house on a tight city lot with no views.

With three small boys, the clients were after a protected house with privacy in a large vacant lot downtown.

To maximise the small completely surrounded space, it is as much outdoor rooms as indoors.

The architects solved the problem by creating a one-story house with seven inner courtyards.

The resulting design is a house with six indoor rooms, most of which look out into seven more outdoor rooms or “gardens.”

These gardens create multiple views from within the house, making up for the lack of a view out.

With no windows extending beyond the  house lot, light pours in from above.

Sparsely furnished in typical Japanese style, the house is a model of restraint.

Playing with light and shadow, the architects wring the maximum pleasure out of the simple things of life.

A strip of sun on a plain surface.

One of the “seven gardens” does strain the concept of “a garden” a bit!

But maybe the clients’ boys could let off steam playing a boisterous game of ball safely in this contained space?