Concrete walls, wooden floors and simplistic furnishings form "transparent" living spaces within this pair of formerly light-starved Tokyo apartments renovated by Norm Architects and Keiji Ashizawa Design.
Constructed in the 1980s, the 36-unit Kinuta Terrace apartment block in Tokyo is arranged around a verdant central courtyard that's meant to give residents the experience of living in a family home with a garden.

Keiji Ashizawa Design and Norm Architects have collaborated to transform two of the apartments which, despite their proximity to green space, felt dark and closed off.
Together, the studio's wanted to create "an environment where all elements are as closely connected as possible".
"Even though the architecture featured an open and dynamic structure, it was not reflected in the interior," Keiji Ashizawa Design's eponymous founder told Dezeen.
"It was a clear goal to get as much natural light and air into the apartments as possible, which is why we have worked with layers and transparency, light and shadow. Not only in the architecture, but also in each of the furniture pieces," said Frederik Werner, associate partner at Norm Architects.
"Nature feels integrated into the apartment from most rooms so that, when looking out into the courtyard, you can't quite tell you're in a city as immense as Tokyo."

The internal layout of both apartments have been reconfigured to form fewer, but larger living spaces through whi...