Kyoto · Machiya · Cafe interiors
Narrow house.Wide open sky.
狭い家に、広い空を。
Four-person Kyoto studio. We renovate compact timber-frame machiya and design small cafe interiors in the historic districts — working slowly, one building at a time.
01 — Approach 光を借りる
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.
- 01
Borrowed-light courtyards
Daylight enters through the courtyard and passes room to room.
- 02
Reclaimed local cedar
Timber from Kyoto’s demolitions, given its next chapter.
- 03
Compact timber-frame townhouses
Narrow on the street, deep and bright inside.
03 — The project page
Read the building in plan and section.
平面と断面で、建物を読む。
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.