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3way House by Naf Architect & Design

By Holly von Huene

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Japanese architectural firm Naf Architect & Design has designed the 3way House in Tokyo, Japan.

Completed in 2010, this 976 square foot contemporary home provides access to its 3 floors by stairs, ladders, or climbing wall.

3way House by Naf Architect & Design:

“A house which has three means of vertical transportation; climbing wall, ladders and stairs. The house is located in a residential area where old and new buildings stand intermingled and buildings are rebuilt to be taller than 7 meters high, as the vicinity has become “district where minimum limit of the building height is 7 meters above ground.”

The client is a family of a couple and two children, and they wanted a traditional wooden house from the start. The structure of the building is a traditional two-storey wooden house with deck roof whose rooftop is surrounded by two-meter parapet to satisfy the regulation of minimum height of the district. The rooftop is like a room without ceiling surrounded by two-meter wall.

We’ve given three means of vertical transportation to this building of three layers; first floor, second floor and rooftop. The climbing wall leads from porch to the rooftop via courtyard; ladders go up from living room through an opening to hobby room; stairs start from kitchen to sun room where laundry is hung. These vertical paths of flow are also passages of sunlight and air, which contribute to creating a sunny and airy indoor environment. Up on the rooftop, roofs of neighbours can be seen stretching far. As the renovation of the vicinity goes on, the view from the rooftop will change with growing number of rooftops.

When we are on the ground, it is hard to realize the relations with neighbours up on the rooftop. We aimed to create versatile living space which allows more opportunities to socialize with neighbours while multiplying family pleasure by closely connecting the ground and rooftop with three means of transporation.”

Photos by: Toshiyuki Yano

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About Holly von Huene

Holly is a freelance writer living in Toronto. She has written for HomeDSGN for more than 3 years and contributed architecture, interior design and lifestyle content for a number of other publications, including DesignBoom, Apartment Therapy and ArchDaily. Learn more about HomeDSGN's Editorial Process.

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