Garden & House in Tokyo by Ryue Nishizawa

Ryue Nishizawa, one half of Japanese architecture practice SANAA with Kazuyo Sejima, has recently created a house in Tokyo that rethinks the borders between room and garden, interior and exterior. The project is part of Nishizawa's study into new inner city lifestyles of non-nuclear Japanese families, questioning the diversification and arrangement of living spaces to suit different urban situations. To maximise sunlight from adjacent tower blocks, Nishizawa designed a tall, thin building that was open to the street by slender colomns and fabric curtains, delicately positioned between the concrete slabs. The lack of a conventional facade gives the appearance of a floating new form taking residence between the surrounding enclosed blocks. Each room has access to a garden area or balcony with potted plants, connecting an inner city plot to greenery, which otherwise would be hard to come by in Tokyo. 

Images: Domus