Introduction to The House for Five Women

On the outskirts of Gradačac, a town in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina, The House for Five Women, a vibrant residence by architecture studio TEN, rises from the countryside to defy conventional housing models through an architecture of care, resilience, and collective authorship.

Designed in collaboration with local activist Hazima Smajlović, NGO Naš Izvor, Engineers Without Borders, and the Gradačac municipality, the project provides a permanent home for five single women who have survived war, displacement, and systemic neglect. Positioned between privacy and solidarity, the house proposes a new paradigm for cohabitation with five individual living units clustered around communal spaces for gathering, working, and growing food.

The Design and Facade

Artist Shirana Shahbazi shaped the striking facade of the building, composing a vibrant arrangement of large, colored aluminum panels in shades of pink, red, green, and deep blue. Though seemingly spontaneous, the composition is carefully calibrated, with each panel being custom-made in a local car painter’s workshop. Their rippled, high-gloss surfaces catch and distort reflections, transforming the shell into a shifting, almost liquid canvas that responds to light, weather, and movement.

all images by Maxime Delvaux, Adrien de Hemptinne

Shirana Shahbazi’s Contribution

Rather than imposing an external vision, the project, developed by Zurich-based collective TEN, emerged through years of on-site dialogue and intergenerational exchange. Each design decision, down to the textures of the floors and the species of trees planted, was made in close collaboration with local tradespeople, volunteers, and craftspeople, embedding the house deeply into both its physical and social context. Working in parallel with TEN, landscape architect Daniel Ganz orchestrated the integration of the site with the topography, planting trees sourced from the area and designing a garden meant not only for food production but also as a space of care, ritual, and shared activity.

One of the most striking elements of The House for Five Women is its facade, a lively surface orchestrated by Iranian photographer Shirana Shahbazi using vibrant color compositions and material contrasts. Shahbazi’s interventions turn the building into a living tapestry, changing with the light, the seasons, and the daily rhythms of its inhabitants. This visual dynamism signals the presence of life, creativity, and shared purpose in a landscape marked by both beauty and historical trauma.

The House for Five Women, a vibrant residence by architecture studio TEN

Collaboration and Solidarity Design

Beneath this expressive crown, the ground level contrasts with radical clarity. A continuous band of vertically aligned glass doors and fixed windows runs the length of the elevation, framed by raw concrete volumes at either end. This transparency anchors the building to the ground and opens the communal interior to the outside world.

The process of building the house, as much as the final structure, reflects TEN’s ethos. The team approaches design as a relational practice. Collaborations with local metalworkers, car painters, and carpet repairers brought knowledge and resources together across social and cultural divides. In doing so, the project acts as a micro-institute where design, art, and social work converge to imagine new infrastructures of care. TEN sees this as a prototype for what design can become when it abandons spectacle in favor of solidarity.

a vibrant arrangement of large, colored aluminum panels fronts the building

the composition is carefully calibrated, with each panel being custom-made in a local car painter’s workshop

A Home Unfolds in Northern Portugal

Helder da Rocha Arquitectos presents its newly completed Casa em Pedrantil, sited within the undulating terrain of northern Portugal. The home waits behind a hill on Rua de São João, its silhouette withheld from view at first. When the team first arrived on site, the only clear vantage point was from a small rise near the road. It was from there, just two or three meters of elevation, that the western landscape unfolds. That moment became the foundation for everything that followed.

The initial design was a grand gesture, cutting through the hill to open the site from the street. This plan was eventually tempered by the cost of excavation, retaining walls, and structural reinforcement proved too high. But the instinct remained. And the revised approach held onto that original sense of revelation, finding another way to guide the eye toward the distant view.

images © Ivo Tavares Studio

Casa em Pedrantil: A Cluster of Scattered Volumes

Rather than alter the slope, the Portugal-based design team at Helder da Rocha Arquitectos allow it to shape its Casa em Pedrantil. A series of independent volumes were introduced across the site, placed in response to the land’s existing contours. The structures, finished in a pale cappotto insulation render and anchored with bands of exposed concrete, settle onto the terrain with restraint.

Their arrangement is loose, without formal symmetry, but carefully considered. Each volume steps and shifts in height, bringing variation inside and out. The layout is not intuitive at first, but gradually makes sense as one moves through it, just as the landscape is gradually revealed.

the house is hidden from view at street level behind a natural rise in the terrain

The Subdued Material Palette

The journey through Casa em Pedrantil is designed with a particular cadence. First the hill, then the pathway, and then the slow appearance of built forms. The house holds back from offering too much at once. Even the garden plays a role in shaping this experience, with initial plantings that restrict the panorama. The architecture works like a lens slowly brought into focus.

Eventually, the sequence opens up to a single large window in the living room, oriented west. This is the only aperture with generous dimensions, and it is placed with care. There is no competition, no redundancy. In the soft light of late afternoon, the view appears just as it did from the top of the hill during that first visit.

The material palette is subdued. The smooth, rendered facades do not catch much attention, but the raw concrete at the bases and around the openings offers weight and texture. These elements also anchor the forms visually to the site. The materials are consistent throughout, avoiding embellishment and allowing shadow and proportion to carry the composition.

the western landscape is revealed gradually as visitors move through the site

volumes are placed gently across the slope to avoid heavy earthworks

the exterior is finished in cappotto with exposed concrete accents

Conclusion

Casa em Pedrantil, designed by Helder da Rocha Arquitectos, is a masterful example of how architecture can be integrated into the natural landscape while still providing a unique and functional living space. The use of scattered volumes, subdued material palette, and careful consideration of the site’s contours all contribute to a sense of harmony between the built and natural environments. As visitors move through the site, the western landscape is revealed gradually, creating a sense of discovery and wonder. The result is a home that not only respects its surroundings but also enhances the overall experience of the landscape.

Clap Studio Revamps the Oven Club in Valencia, Spain

Five years after their first spatial intervention, Clap Studio returns to Valencia, Spain, for the redesign of OVEN Club, which transforms the beloved nightlife venue into an immersive furnace of sound and sensation. Tapping into the visceral imagery of the club’s name, the new interior concept channels the intense, kinetic environment of an actual oven, where heat, transformation, and vibration converge.

Design Concept

Clap Studio juxtaposes cold, reflective stainless steel with richly hued Alpi wood finishes in red and black, creating a visual temperature gradient that mirrors the emotional arcs of a night out. The result is an atmosphere that feels simultaneously industrial and psychedelic, minimal yet sensorial. Light bounces, textures shimmer, and surfaces breathe with energy. A horizontal screen behind the DJ booth adds another layer of immersion, pulsing in sync with sound and light to draw the crowd deeper into the experience.

all images by Simone Marcolin

Enhancing the Spatial and Sonic Experience with LED Grids

Located in the heart of Valencia, OVEN Club has long been a staple in Spain’s electronic music circuit, known for its eclectic programming that ranges from house to techno and everything in between. With the latest transformation, Clap Studio cements the reputation of the venue as a cultural landmark, using design to intensify the spatial and sonic experience. The DJ booth remains the nucleus of the layout, flanked symmetrically by two bars that feature embedded LED grids—custom-programmed to shift with the night’s tempo. These light structures mimic the heating elements of an oven, reinforcing the sense of a space in constant flux.

Clap Studio returns to Valencia, Spain to redesign OVEN Club

transforming the nightlife venue into an immersive furnace of sound and sensation

the new interior concept channels the intense, kinetic environment of an actual oven

Conclusion

Clap Studio’s redesign of OVEN Club is a masterful blend of industrial and psychedelic elements, creating an immersive experience that draws visitors into a world of sound and sensation. The use of LED grids, stainless steel, and Alpi wood finishes creates a unique visual temperature gradient that mirrors the emotional arcs of a night out. As a cultural landmark in Valencia’s electronic music circuit, OVEN Club is now more than just a nightlife venue – it’s an immersive furnace of sound and sensation that will leave a lasting impression on all who visit.

Introduction to the Jihlava Multipurpose Arena

There is a clarity to CHYBIK + KRISTOF‘s decision to build the Jihlava Multipurpose Arena in the center of the city. It defies the pull toward peripheral land, choosing instead to deepen the relationship between civic life and sports infrastructure. As construction advances, the team’s vision for a permanent, public presence in the urban core becomes increasingly legible. The placement of the arena ensures it becomes part of the rhythm of daily life. It is walkable, visible, and open to passersby.

Jihlava, a regional capital with a population of around 50,000, is betting on architecture as a driver of both cultural exchange and economic growth. The new arena is designed to serve more than HC Dukla’s storied ice hockey legacy. With a capacity of 5,650, the venue is equally prepared to host concerts, exhibitions, and festivals. Its shape and program are defined by this range of activity, embedded with the expectation of constant adaptation.

CHYBIK KRISTOF designs the complex as an integrated civic space | visualization © CHYBIK + KRISTOF

CHYBIK + KRISTOF Brings New Construction to Jihlava

Four buildings make up the Jihlava Multipurpose Arena, as two are preserved, while two are newly completed by CHYBIK + KRISTOF. The arena is joined by a mixed-use volume that folds together accommodation, a gym, a pub, and rooftop running track. The architects anchor this companion building in the corner of the site, extending the program well beyond the confines of sport and turning the ensemble into a civic cluster.

Open spaces draw a line between built forms. A stepped plaza, cut diagonally through the plan, becomes a generous threshold between the arena and the nearby university. It operates as a social surface, hosting informal gatherings and supporting programmed events. This attention to urban texture, how people move, linger, and return, is evident throughout the project.

the arena remains in the city center to strengthen its urban role | visualization © CHYBIK + KRISTOF

The Colorful, Multipurpose Arena

There is no mistaking the Jihlava Multipurpose Arena from a distance, as CHYBIK + KRISTOF curate its color and form with intent. Pigmented red concrete tribunes circle the stadium’s core, giving it a graphic edge that helps orient visitors from almost any angle. These pre-cast curves echo the movements of the sport inside, while also nodding to architectural languages found across the Vysočina region.

Above, the roofline extends with a sculptural sharpness, creating a silhouette that crowns the project. It is less a cap than a signal. The geometry reads as deliberate and crisp, elevating the arena to landmark status without overpowering the city’s scale.

the arena supports hockey games, concerts, exhibitions, and festivals | visualization © CHYBIK + KRISTOF

Collaboration and Design Process

The process behind the design has been just as layered as the program it contains. CHYBIK + KRISTOF have made collaboration a central part of the work. Seating has been developed alongside mmcité, while Czech lighting studio BOMMA has created integrated installations that sit flush within the brickwork of circulation spaces. These interventions do more than illuminate. They echo the industrial heritage of the region and create tactile points of engagement for visitors.

Landscape architect Zdeněk Sendler, a long-time collaborator of the studio, has been tasked with the adjoining park’s renewal. The green space is being carefully restored, reconnecting it with the new public zones and enhancing the site’s permeability.

a new mixed use building includes a pub, gym, rooftop, and track | photo © CHYBIK + KRISTOF

Public Investment and Regional Ambition

Public investment, led by the City of Jihlava with support from Vysočina and the state, underscores the regional ambition behind the arena. For city councillor David Beke, the building is both a response to the area’s proud hockey tradition and a foundational piece of infrastructure for what lies ahead. ‘It becomes a modern regional colosseum,’ he said, ‘elevating the importance and development of both the city and the region.’

From the designers’ perspective, scale demands responsibility. ‘Architecture is a tool for the creative reuse of our cities,’ says Ondřej Chybik. ‘We are creating a space that fosters engagement and long-term resilience.’ The arena is intended to move fluidly between uses, inviting both everyday interaction and extraordinary experience.

Introduction to Panov — Scott’s Window Window Window House

A quiet spatial pressure defines the first encounter of Panov — Scott’s Window Window Window House. It begins subtly with a lowered ceiling, a downward step, a line of shadow cast across the floor. The proportions are just enough to evoke a slight shift in perception, a nudge inward. The sensation is architectural rather than stylistic. Here, the Australian architects have composed a sequence of rooms that seem to slow time.

The newly added portion of the house is discreet in scale, embedded beneath the original structure and tracing its footprint. From the outside, its presence registers through fine adjustments to light and entry. From the inside, the atmosphere is shaped by how the window operates as an instrument—projecting outward, reframing the coastal canopy, tuning the interior to the shifting patterns of place.

images © Hamish McIntosh

Minimal Addition, Maximum Presence

In one room of Panov — Scott’s house in New South Wales, a window pulls forward into space and offers a ledge at the edge of the garden. The detail is pared back, yet it holds complexity in how it engages the body. This is a place to pause, to settle in briefly or linger with another, close enough to read the texture of leaves or listen for visitors along the ridge. The view expands gently, unspooling the distance between the beach, the trees, and the house.

The architects design the spaces to work in deliberate contrast. Contraction precedes openness. One room yields to another, modulated by thresholds and ceiling angles. Their approach draws from the architectural staging of places like the Laurentian Library, where compression and release are orchestrated to shape experience.

the new rooms are tucked beneath the original house with minimal impact on the site

Panov — Scott Holds the Intangible

Designing the Window Window Window House, the brief for Panov — Scott was straightforward, calling for three new rooms and a relocated stair. However, the result does not rest in program. It resides instead in how subtly the additions register within the landscape, how lightly the structure touches the ground. The house remains close to the beach, but never declares itself. What has been added remains nearly invisible from a distance, nestled into the slope beneath the original timber frame.

This small act of expansion becomes a study in discretion. It is an architecture of minimal gesture, careful proportion, and quiet alignment with country. The project privileges the atmospheric over the formal. It draws its strength from how the body feels within it, how the light moves across a surface, how the wind is caught at the edge of a frame.

The new stair is practical, but even here, the space is tuned for pause. As visitors ascend, light draws the eye toward the upper landing, where materials soften the transition. White walls sit above timber, without ornament, allowing the window to do the expressive work. Throughout the house, the framing of views and the calibration of dimensions carry a calm but resonant charge.

each space is shaped by proportion and bodily awareness rather than surface expression

a projecting window creates a place to sit and observe the surrounding canopy

thresholds and ceiling angles guide movement and frame experience

Conclusion

Panov — Scott’s Window Window Window House is a masterclass in subtlety and restraint. By prioritizing the intangible and the atmospheric, the architects have created a space that is at once calm and resonant. The house is a testament to the power of careful proportion, quiet alignment, and minimal gesture. As a study in discretion, it shows that sometimes the most profound architecture is the kind that whispers rather than shouts. The result is a space that not only slows time but also invites contemplation, inviting its occupants to pause, reflect, and connect with the surrounding landscape.

Introduction to OPAL Architecture’s Little House on the Ferry

Tucked within the weathered coastline of rural Maine, OPAL Architecture’s Little House on the Ferry sidesteps the typical image of a single homestead set against a picturesque view. The project takes shape with three modest, prefabricated structures, nearly matching, positioned just so among the remnants of a former granite quarry. At first glance, the cabins appear to rest gently on the site, yet their placement reveals a more deliberate reading of place. Each sits in conversation with the stone around it, recognizing both the industrial past and the ongoing resilience of the recovering ground.

The guest house serves a family that travels from Austria to Maine each summer, joining an older main residence nearby. The new timber structures offer privacy for visiting friends and relatives, but they also deepen the experience of being in this particular landscape. Instead of dominating the site, the buildings register its scars and its softness. The design finds meaning in dispersion — each volume a fragment in dialogue with granite blocks and exposed bedrock.

images © Trent Bell Photography

Cabins Perched Lightly Over the Rural Maine Landscape

OPAL Architecture’s cabins in Maine remain minimal in plan and expression, a gesture made possible by the use of prefabricated cross-laminated timber. Fabricated in Quebec from black spruce and ferried over to the island, these panels act as the full structural system, forming floor, walls, and roof. They arrive precut, slotting into place with precision. This construction method allowed the architects to ensure minimal disturbance to the fragile site, while producing a building envelope that is both strong and tactile. The grain of the spruce reads through the interiors, where the tone is kept pale and clear, letting the landscape carry the color.

Connection between the three buildings is managed by a series of decks that trace over the ground with lightness. These floating platforms act as thresholds, paths, and outlooks. They refuse any single axis or entry point. Instead, they reinforce the site’s inherent irregularity, allowing the architecture to feel both settled and momentary. Nothing is over-defined. The buildings are aligned more with the grain of the land than with each other.

each cabin responds differently to the contours and character of the quarry site

Architecture in Response to All Seasons

OPAL Architecture designed the cabins to be used primarily in the warmer months of Maine, with large, operable windows ensuring natural ventilation. In the shoulder seasons, sliding wooden shutters temper the low sun and help insulate. When the owners leave for Austria in late fall, the shutters close the buildings up entirely. These movable elements add a quiet rhythm to the facades and offer subtle reminders of the life inside: one moment open to sea air and chatter, the next buttoned up and silent until next year.

Interior furnishings, drawn largely from the Thos. Moser collection, reflect a similar attitude toward restraint and care. Each piece is positioned as though placed thoughtfully and without hurry. The dining chairs, bedroom tables, and living room accents feel well suited to the project’s scale. Like the architecture itself, they support the experience of the site without distracting from it.

three micro-cabins are connected by a network of open decks

wooden shutters control sunlight and secure the house through the winter months

the elevated decks float over granite and brush, linking the buildings gently

Conclusion

OPAL Architecture’s Little House on the Ferry is a thoughtful and nuanced response to the unique landscape of rural Maine. By using prefabricated cross-laminated timber and a minimalist design approach, the architects have created a series of cabins that not only respect the site but also enhance the experience of being there. The project demonstrates a deep understanding of the relationship between architecture, landscape, and the changing seasons, resulting in a truly remarkable and inspiring piece of design.

Introduction to the Lycabettus Apartment

Enveloped between the buzzing Exarcheia and Kolonaki neighborhoods, the Lycabettus apartment by Oikonomakis Siampakoulis Architects is a reinterpretation of a 1970s Athenian flat into a contemporary, light-filled living space for two young professionals. At just 85 square meters, the once-partitioned space now unfolds into a unified open-plan, art-filled interior where vintage terrazzo floors meet bespoke installations, and daily rituals—like cooking and art collecting—take center stage. The renovation preserves the soulful elements of the original home while integrating a vivid palette of colors, textures, and forms that reflect a deeply personal and culturally layered domesticity.

hand-crafted marble shelves allow for storage of appliances, cookbooks and artworks | all images by Alina Lefa

The Art Collection and Layout

The clients, both active in the arts and communication fields, came with a clear vision, describing a home that could house their extensive art collection, inherited furniture, and globally sourced design pieces. In response, the Athens-based team of Oikonomakis Siampakoulis Architects curated a layout that allows objects to breathe and interact. By removing the old longitudinal walls of the apartment, the team allowed natural light to penetrate the depth of the plan. A bespoke white metal structure placed at the former wall’s location centers the transformation, marking its history with a sculptural gallery for favorite artworks, framed against an original exposed brick segment.

honey-stained, oak veneered cupboards are designed around the existing airshaft window

Tiled Kitchen Island and Marble Surfaces

A standout feature of the Lycabettus apartment is its tiled kitchen island, with handcrafted marble shelves and integrated nooks; it allows cooking and conversation to flow effortlessly, reflecting the owners’ passion for culinary rituals. Hovering above it, a suspended white metal shelving unit casts playful shadows, mediating the space between kitchen and dining. Behind it, oak-veneered cabinetry—custom fit around airshaft and transom windows that redistribute daylight throughout the space, illuminating the previously dim bathroom and study room.

Material Narrative

From honey-toned oak to Tinos marble, materials are treated as narrative tools in Oikonomakis Siampakoulis Architects’ Lycabettus apartment. Each surface, curve, and cut-out revives overlooked Athenian textures and domestic vernaculars with quiet precision. Custom bathroom tiles by artist Fani Skoulikidi Boukouvala reinforce the idea of art as an everyday presence.

the kitchen island, complete with cupboards and Tinos marble backsplash

circulation into the apartment is transformed through the demolition of the old walls

Conclusion

The result is a home where architecture doesn’t simply frame life—it participates in it, celebrating intimacy, clarity, and a renewed appreciation for the past within a contemporary Greek identity. The Lycabettus apartment by Oikonomakis Siampakoulis Architects is a testament to the power of thoughtful design in transforming a space, not just physically, but also culturally and emotionally. By weaving together the threads of art, history, and daily life, the architects have created a living space that is at once deeply personal and universally relatable.

Introduction to Designboom’s Unique Content

There’s one thing that makes designboom’s content so unique, and that’s our editorial team. Made up of more than 200,000 active contributors from around the world, our designboom guest reader submissions invite creatives and makers — regardless of place, position, prestige, religion, nationality, or gender — to communicate their work to a vast international audience. Launched in 2025, our guest reader submissions have been contributing to a horizontal distribution of information where cultural conversations are developed, and don’t follow any fixed hierarchical systems or chains of command.

With a guaranteed article on designboom’s readers page, designers and architects from all corners of the globe are welcome to contribute as part of a positive commentary on the world’s creative scene, and are encouraged to present their projects to designboom’s readership: an audience of professionals, students, and design enthusiasts that reaches 3.5 million monthly.

Looking for a sign to share your project with visionaries around the world and get worldwide recognition? This is it!

Explore Eight Architecture Projects by Our Guest Readers

See homes, studio headquarters, bars, and villas submitted by our guest readers from around the world!

Casa Yume by QBO3 Arquitectos

name: Casa Yume

architect: QBO3 Arquitectos

interior designer: Sofiainteriorismo

location: Costa Rica

Casa Yume by QBO3 Arquitectos is a residential project located in the Papagayo Peninsula of Costa Rica, designed to harmonize modern architectural expression with the dramatic natural beauty of its site. As part of the broader context of high-end developments in this pristine coastal region, Casa Yume stands out for its bold geometries, refined spatial composition, and a deep sensitivity to its surroundings. The house embodies an architectural narrative that draws from the terrain and topography while embracing expansive views of the Pacific Ocean.

Project Highlights

The House Without Words by Snow AIDe

name: Mueonga: The House Without Words
architect: Snow AIDe | @snowaide_official

location: South Korea

Snow AIDe’s Mueonga: The House Without Words stands alone, in complete solitude, just an hour away from Seoul, shaped by two intersecting circles. It has acquired its definitive condition and will remain alone forever. This project is a small hideaway house harmoniously integrated into its natural surroundings of woods and streams.

More Projects

Mokosh Restaurant at Villa Tončić by Studio 502

name: Mokosh Restaurant at Villa Tončić
architect: Andrea Yateem, Jovana Boskovic / Studio 502

location: Split, Croatia

Studio 502 transforms Villa Tončić, a protected Secessionist villa in Split, Croatia, into Mokosh Restaurant, balancing heritage preservation with contemporary hospitality design.

Additional Featured Projects

Indo Avellanas by Garton Group Architecture

name: Indo Avellanas
architect: Garton Group Architecture | @gartongrouparchitecture

location: Avellanas, Costa Rica

Indo Avellanas is a luxury residential enclave by Garton Group Architecture, located in Avellanas, with a collection of one- and two-bedroom villas just steps from the Pacific Ocean.

Global Architecture Showcase

Chimb Club by Wooton Designers

name: Chimp Club
architect: Wooton Designers

At the Chimp Club, Wooton Designers explores how traditional Tibetan cultural architecture can inspire a futuristic spatial design experience.

International Design and Architecture

June 4, 2025

Introduction to Yayoi House

In Bunkyo, Tokyo, architect Takeshi Hosaka designs Yayoi House for a family of four, rooting domestic life in an ecosystem of plants, water, and light. The reinforced concrete residence spans two stories and prioritizes cyclical living. From rooftop rainwater runoff to edible wall-climbing vines, the home integrates natural processes within the city, creating a resilient, self-sustaining habitat.

Design and Architecture

The decision to build only two stories instead of three was deliberate—an intentional move to create a vertical canvas where sunlight and moonlight could refract across raw concrete surfaces. Two large, semicircular skylights, set diagonally from one another, channel celestial light into the heart of the home. This luminous core opens up into a generous, nearly six-meter-high space that unites the living, dining, and kitchen areas. Surrounding this central volume are the terrace, the children’s rooms, the master bedroom, and the wife’s hobby room, where aquariums and fish tanks introduce a living element to the interior.

all images by Noboru Inoue

Integrating Nature into Everyday Life

At first glance, Yayoi House stands out for its unique environmental approach. Tokyo-based architect Takeshi Hosaka wraps the structure with greenery. Bitter gourd vines scale the walls, biotopes cluster at the ground, and rainwater drips openly from roof to earth. Water flows along uncovered gutters, down the exterior walls, and into a curated biotope near the entrance. Initially maintained by the family, this aquatic microcosm is later left to self-regulate, evolving into a miniature ecosystem of plankton, plants, and fish. The system is both visible and experiential: glimpsed from a semicircular window inside the foyer and animated during daily rituals like entering the home or bathing beside a planted inner garden.

Hosaka also threads in a subtle food cycle. Waste from the kitchen garbage processor nourishes the terrace plants, yielding nutrient-rich soil. This closed-loop logic of waste, water, and growth exemplifies the architect’s intention, which is to embed the basic elements of nature within the city and in daily life.

Takeshi Hosaka designs Yayoi House for a family of four

the reinforced concrete residence spans two stories

the architect carves two large, semicircular skylights, set diagonally from one another

the skylights channel celestial light into the heart of the home

Conclusion

Yayoi House, designed by Takeshi Hosaka, is a testament to the potential of integrating nature into urban living. By incorporating elements such as greenery, water, and natural light, the residence creates a unique and sustainable ecosystem. The closed-loop system of waste, water, and growth exemplifies the architect’s intention to embed the basic elements of nature within the city and in daily life. The result is a resilient, self-sustaining habitat that not only benefits the