This project involved the renovation of a 50-year-old main house and a detached cottage located in the Oku-Saga area, near the Arashiyama district in Kyoto.
The approximately 1,000-square-meter property features a traditional Zen garden designed by Sone Zouen, a landscape firm known for its longstanding work with the Imperial Household Agency and Zen temples of the Rinzai school.

The main house, a quietly elegant Japanese-style residence, showed traces of being lived in with great care over the years, while the detached cottage had been updated with more modern interior finishes.
The main house was minimally renovated to adapt to the lifestyle of its new residents.
Meanwhile, the detached cottage was fully transformed into a guesthouse, offering a unique and immersive stay experience that resonates with the surrounding Zen garden.
In the main house, we repaired deteriorated parts and updated the plumbing systems to support contemporary living.

Some interior surfaces were selectively renewed using a palette of black materials to subtly tighten the space and minimize visual clutter associated with daily life.
The detached cottage, approximately 43 square meters in area, was completely redesigned as a guesthouse featuring an LDK (living-dining-kitchen) and bath area.
To evoke a sense of spatial richness beyond the compact footprint, we focused on creating a strong connection with the surrounding environment.

Since the cottage is nestled between two gardens on the north and south, we designed the space so that the gardens visually and experientially pass through the building.
Specifically, the LDK was positioned like a tunnel between the gardens and features full-width openings with sliding and folding doors that can be completely opened.
The floor was designed as an extension of the landscape, incorporating traditional stonework with polished cement and embedded stepping stones.

Some stones were polished flat, while others retained their natural textures to offer tactile variation underfoot.
The interior wall finishes were carried over from the exterior to blur the boundary between inside and outside.
Through subtle adjustments in material connections and joinery details, we created a continuous and nuanced transition between garden and architecture.

This was done using a method similar to a “shiritori” word game—where parts are shared, others intentionally varied—allowing garden and building to inform one another.
The bathtub is sunken and frameless, preserving an unobstructed view of the north garden.
By filling the water level up to the floor, the bath surface reflects the garden, creating a “floor of water” that gently extends the presence of the landscape into the interior.
In this project, the garden came first, followed by architectural responses. Then, the garden was refined again in accordance with the architecture.

Through this reciprocal process, the two elements—landscape and architecture—shaped the environment together.
It was a rare and fulfilling experience of collaboration, where each complements the other to form a cohesive and resonant space.