Project Name: House in Koishikawa

Location: Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan

Design Team: Masaya Suzuki Architects

Total Floor Area: 111.57 m²

Completion: September 2025

Photography: Kenichi Suzuki

Design Features

Project House in Koishikawa, designed by Masaya Suzuki Architects, stands as a masterful expression of budget constraint balance and spatial quality enhancement nestled within a 50-year-old apartment building in Bunkyo, Tokyo. This 111.57-square-meter residential renovation exemplifies the perfect balance between distinctive three-tier renovation strategy and geometrically configured mirror placement, redefining light distribution and spatial experience within elongated apartment footprints.

The project's most compelling design achievement lies in its intelligent zoned renovation strategy. The project confronted two core challenges: construction cost pressures arising from the generous floor area exceeding 100 square meters, and uneven natural light distribution resulting from the elongated north-south planar configuration. Masaya Suzuki's design response divided the entire plan into three zones of different construction scales: simple renovation, partial renovation, and full renovation. This strategic zoning not only optimized budget allocation but also closely linked construction scale with spatial use, functional requirements, and future changes.

The architectural narrative unfolds through sophisticated spatial layering, demonstrating remarkable functional integration. The simple renovation zone was configured as an independent area separated by the entrance earthen floor, serving as rooms for children soon to leave home, with walls partially painted in traditional Japanese colors including mustard yellow and Iwai brown, creating harmonious dialogue with the bold existing interiors. The full renovation zone encompasses water facilities requiring significant layout adjustments, with interiors and equipment selecting off-the-shelf products emphasizing performance. The partial renovation zone contains principal spaces including living room, dining area, and master bedroom, increasing the budget proportion for custom joinery work through preserving existing substrates, achieving refined pursuit of detail design and material quality. The overall space presents an open single-room layout, creating residential places suited to different uses through undulating ceiling height variations.

The project's defining architectural element is the innovative mirror lighting system, demonstrating remarkable optical design intelligence. Two mirrors positioned at 45-degree angles to windows in a V-shaped configuration channel natural light to darker areas in the spatial depths. This geometric arrangement not only solves practical illumination problems; the angled mirrors also create visual expansion, generating a labyrinthine mysterious spatial atmosphere. Through carefully choreographed light reflection, the design transforms limited natural light sources into an illumination system permeating the entire residential space.

The interior treatment demonstrates the refinement of old-new fusion. The junction between existing and new interiors generated by different construction scales forms an interior space where past and present harmonize. This design approach fully leverages the unique advantages of aged residences, creating richly expressive living environments. The differentiated treatment of construction scales serves not only as a budget management strategy but becomes an important element of spatial narrative, allowing the entire residence to present clearly layered temporal and material dialogue.

House in Koishikawa's defining feature is its contemporary interpretation of budget-quality balance and efficient renovation practice. The design achieves delicate balance between cost control and spatial quality by linking different construction scales with spatial use, functional requirements, and future changes. The V-shaped mirror configuration serves not only as a functional solution but becomes a core element of spatial experience, transforming physical limitations into design opportunities. The project proves that thoughtful design can achieve quality enhancement and functional optimization of existing spaces through strategic resource allocation and innovative technology application under strict budget constraints, while preserving the building's historical memory and material texture.

Design Team Masaya Suzuki Architects, established in 2016 by principal architect Masaya Suzuki, is a Tokyo-based practice dedicated to creating architecturally refined residential spaces, commercial facilities, and renovation projects that harmonize contemporary living requirements with traditional Japanese spatial sensibilities. Born in Matsudo, Chiba in 1986, Suzuki brings a distinguished educational background from Chiba University and Kyoto University of Art and Design, where he completed his graduate studies under the renowned architect Yasushi Horibe.

Prior to founding his own practice, Suzuki honed his expertise at Yasushi Horibe Architects & Associates from 2012 to 2015, developing a design philosophy rooted in material authenticity, spatial perception, and contextual sensitivity. As a First Class Registered Architect, he leads a firm that specializes in comprehensive architectural services including residential design, adaptive reuse projects, landscape design, and product development.

The practice has garnered significant recognition within Japan's architectural community, earning the Matsudo City Landscape Award Encouragement Prize in 2020 and the prestigious Chiba Prefectural Architectural Association Excellence Award in 2025. Suzuki's commitment to advancing architectural discourse extends beyond practice, having served as a lecturer at Chuo College of Technology from 2020 to 2023 and participating as a featured architect in the MADE BY ARCHITECT platform. The firm's work demonstrates a consistent exploration of light manipulation, spatial continuity, and the integration of existing conditions with contemporary interventions, establishing a distinctive voice in Japanese residential architecture.

Masaya Suzuki Architects, as a full-service architectural practice, demonstrates proficiency across diverse typologies, encompassing residential architecture, vacation villas, commercial stores, planning design and supervision of various facilities, planning design and supervision of various renovation projects, landscape design, and product design. Through a diverse portfolio spanning from residences to public facilities, the firm has established new paradigms in contemporary Japanese architecture, demonstrating consistent commitment to creating genuinely humanized environments. Its award-winning projects confirm the firm's exceptional standing in contemporary Japanese architectural practice. The firm believes in the essential value of architecture as human dwelling and infuses all work with dedication to material authenticity, spatial perception, and contextual sensitivity.