Backyard house in Japan sinks below ground and grows grass on its roof
A couple and their three children have a new home tucked into the grandparents' backyard in Japan.
The 108-square-metre House in Mibu stands in the town of Mibu in Tochigi Prefecture, off a residential street. It was completed by Tato Architects, the Kobe-based practice founded by Yo Shimada, according to Dezeen.
The setting drives the design. The house sits on land behind the client's parental home. Space is tight. Privacy matters.
The architects dug in rather than building up. The ground floor is sunk 500 millimetres below ground level. Above it, the first floor juts out on one side, creating shelter and extra room without taking more land.
The roof does double duty. Part of the lower volume is topped with a sloped green roof planted with grass. It reads as garden as much as building.
Outside, the house is clad in charred timber, wood blackened to give a dark, textured finish. Inside, the mood flips. Walls and ceilings are lined entirely in lauan plywood, a pale tropical hardwood often used for panelling, which gives the small rooms a warm, continuous surface.
What makes this stand out is how hard the small footprint works. A sunken floor, an overhang and a planted slope squeeze living space for five, a link between two generations and a patch of green into one backyard plot.
