Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architects has designed a house in Tokyo with a glazed ground floor to connect it to the surrounding tropical garden.
The architect designed Todoroki House for a client who wanted to live in Tokyo's city centre, but have a house surrounded by nature.

"The Todoroki Ravine is a windy location. Running through a dense urban forest, the air provided near the ground is humid while dry winds constantly blow up towards the sky," Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architects (ATTA) project architect Matthew Nowicki explained.
"The design of the house has been defined by focusing on these two contrasting environmental conditions."

Paris-based ATTA made a study of traditional building design in both humid and arid environments to find design inspiration for the project. In Tokyo it combined these elements into a single house that could accommodate the lush subtropical greenery below, and the breezy skies over Tokyo above. Full-height glazing wraps around the half-octagonal ground floor, with earth excavated during the groundworks piled against the other side.

A sweeping wooden staircase curves around one side of the high-ceilinged ground floor, connecting to a mezzanine level where the house's main entrance is located.

Above the mezzanine, the first floor is formed of eight intersecting rectangular volumes, giving the master bedroom views out over the treetops in multiple directions. The low wood-clad ceilings, wooden walls and floor are designed to...