{"id":921459,"date":"2026-10-05T11:58:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T11:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/921459\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T11:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T11:58:16","slug":"planted-roof-extends-garden-over-tato-architects-timber-house-in-mibu-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/921459\/","title":{"rendered":"planted roof extends garden over tato architects\u2019 timber house in mibu, japan"},"content":{"rendered":"

house\u2019s rotated timber volume responds to the existing backyard<\/p>\n

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House in Mibu is a two-story timber<\/a> house<\/a> for a couple and their three children, designed by Tato Architects<\/a> in the backyard of the family\u2019s parental home in Mibu, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan<\/a>. The living floor is sunk about 500 millimeters into the ground, while its planted roof<\/a> extends the garden over the house.<\/p>\n

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A large, weathered barn in the backyard is used for parking and as a workspace and is being repaired and retained. To keep the garden open, Tato Architects rotated the house at an angle following the path of cars that continue to pass through the site. This creates sheltered areas where the roof reaches toward the barn and gaps where it pulls away.<\/p>\n

\"plantedall images\u00a0 \u00a9DAICI ANO<\/p>\n

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Tato connects the living room and garden through Split levels<\/p>\n

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The half-sunken living room is enclosed by earth and a low wooden roof while opening broadly toward the garden. From the lowered floor, the garden appears almost at eye level beyond the glass. The second floor forms a more enclosed counterpart, with small, nest-like rooms connected by two staircases and a raised loft that functions as both a desk and sleeping area.<\/p>\n

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The change in levels also creates visual connections between family members in the garden and those inside the living room. This extends Kobe-based studio<\/a> Tato Architects\u2019 use of split-level relationships from the interior to the relationship between the house and its surroundings.<\/p>\n

\"plantedthe grass roof is nurtured by automatic irrigation using water from the existing well<\/p>\n

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Charred cedar and a grass roof connect house and landscape <\/p>\n

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The roof acts as an \u2018in-between\u2019 element, drawing on Aldo van Eyck\u2019s idea of a space where enclosure and openness coexist. From inside, it reads as a ceiling; from the garden, it becomes an extension of the ground, covered with grass and watered automatically from the site\u2019s existing well.<\/p>\n

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The house is clad in charred cedar, or yakisugi, beneath a corrugated galvanized steel roof. Inside, lauan plywood is combined with troweled mortar floors. By sinking the living space and extending the garden across the roof, the design integrates the new house with the existing backyard and barn.<\/p>\n

\"planteda grass-covered lower roof spans over the living room sunken into the ground\"plantedthe entrance is set beneath the pilotis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"house\u2019s rotated timber volume responds to the existing backyard \u00a0 House in Mibu is a two-story timber house…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":921460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[2909,76,354,355,49,48,356,75,1242,40817,287173,3869],"class_list":["post-921459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-architecture-in-japan","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-residential-architecture-and-interiors","tag-rooftop-architecture-and-design","tag-tato-architects-yo-shimada","tag-wood-and-timber-architecture-and-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=921459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/921460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=921459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=921459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=921459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}