Japanese house renovation tour | Kyoto, Japan

Terrace House near Demachiyanagi | Renovated row house in Kyoto, Japan Located in the quiet northern suburbs of Kyoto, this project consists of the extensive renovation and extension of a typical post-war Japanese row house. Originally constructed in the 1950s as part of a block of similar houses, it served as home to a single family until it was eventually vacated and left to dilapidate. Over the years, the house was modified with a series of minor interventions — aluminium windows and doors; a small rear extension; and the addition of internal plumbing — yet the traditional character of the home was always clearly evident beneath these new layers. Thus the approach for the renovation was to strip the house back to its essential form and carefully create a series of interventions, legibly differentiating old and new. Internally, all linings were removed, leaving bare the skeletal timber structure. This process of peeling back revealed large timber roof beams that had been conceale