planted roof extends garden over tato architects’ timber house in mibu, japan

house’s rotated timber volume responds to the existing backyard

House in Mibu is a two-story timber house for a couple and their three children, designed by Tato Architects in the backyard of the family’s parental home in Mibu, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. The living floor is sunk about 500 millimeters into the ground, while its planted roof extends the garden over the house.

A large, weathered barn in the backyard is used for parking and as a workspace and is being repaired and retained. To keep the garden open, Tato Architects rotated the house at an angle following the path of cars that continue to pass through the site. This creates sheltered areas where the roof reaches toward the barn and gaps where it pulls away.

Tato connects the living room and garden through Split levels

The half-sunken living room is enclosed by earth and a low wooden roof while opening broadly toward the garden. From the lowered floor, the garden appears almost at eye level beyond the glass. The second floor forms a more enclosed counterpart, with small, nest-like rooms connected by two staircases and a raised loft that functions as both a desk and sleeping area.

The change in levels also creates visual connections between family members in the garden and those inside the living room. This extends Kobe-based studio Tato Architects’ use of split-level relationships from the interior to the relationship between the house and its surroundings.

• Charred cedar and a grass roof connect house and landscape

The roof acts as an ‘in-between’ element, drawing on Aldo van Eyck’s idea of a space where enclosure and openness coexist. From inside, it reads as a ceiling; from the garden, it becomes an extension of the ground, covered with grass and watered automatically from the site’s existing well.

The house is clad in charred cedar, or yakisugi, beneath a corrugated galvanized steel roof. Inside, lauan plywood is combined with troweled mortar floors. By sinking the living space and extending the garden across the roof, the design integrates the new house with the existing backyard and barn.

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project info:

name: House in Mibu

architects: Tato Architects – Yo Shimada | @yo_shimada

design team: Yo Shimada, Nobuhiko Sato, Yohei Uchino

structural engineer: tmsd Takashi Manda

structural design team: Takashi Manda, Moeka Magari, Hideki Oda

location: Mibu, Japan
photographer: DAICI ANO

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