Kōji Nakagawa Architecture Studio renovates compact timber-frame machiya and designs small cafe interiors in Kyoto’s historic districts. Four of us, working slowly, one building at a time.
Sheet A-02 / ApproachSection through a machiya — not to scale
Light is borrowed, never wasted.
A narrow machiya has little street frontage, so we bring daylight inward through courtyards and let it travel from room to room. This ‘borrowed light’ approach is the heart of our work. We build with reclaimed cedar from local demolitions, so timber from Kyoto’s past becomes part of its next chapter.
01Borrowed-light courtyardsDaylight brought inward and passed from room to room.
02Reclaimed local cedarTimber from Kyoto’s demolitions, given a next chapter.
03Compact timber-frame townhousesNarrow-frontage machiya, framed and renovated in wood.
Sheet A-03 / Selected workIndex of drawings
Selected work, drawn and photographed.
Each project is shown the way we think about it: plans, section drawings and large photographs side by side. Machiya renovations and small cafe interiors are presented in the same quiet format so the buildings speak for themselves.
Every project page opens with a large photograph, then moves to the plan and section drawings that explain how light and timber work together. Short notes describe the site, the materials and the role of the courtyard.