Location: Yugawara, Japan

Design Teams: yate, Maeda Koumuten

Area: 85.61 m²

Completion: 2024

Photography: Tomoyuki Kusunose

Design Features: Gazebo House stands on a hillside in Yugawara, Kanagawa, with the town and sea unfolding in front and woodland close behind. Designed jointly by yate and Maeda Koumuten, the 85.61 m² timber house is both a sculptor's second home and a place to work. Its two floors establish distinct scales of daily life: the ground floor gathers around the body, tools and artworks, while the upper floor opens toward the distance. The sea is not offered equally from every corner; it comes into view through movement and ascent.

The house turns slightly within its plot to avoid direct views of neighbouring homes, directing a large southeast opening toward the sea. The roof rises in the same direction, its low-to-high ceiling carrying the eye from the timber frame toward the balcony and sky. A dining table sits within this transition, allowing meals, conversation and distant views to share a common axis. A few steps outward lead from the enclosure of the room into the openness beneath the eaves.

On the ground floor, a central service core replaces a sequence of rooms divided by a corridor. Workspace and circulation wrap around this volume, whose lauan plywood lining gives it the presence of an oversized piece of furniture. It accommodates everyday needs while defining places to work, rest and pass through. A run of north-facing windows brings the woodland into the studio, and openings at the ends of routes help orient movement. The connection between bedroom and workspace makes it easy to move between concentrated work and rest.

Light operates at different distances. Upstairs, the broad opening frames town, hillside and sea together; downstairs, a skylight brings daylight onto a wall and into the narrow passage. Timber grain and the subtle texture of the interior diatomaceous-earth finish become part of this closer field of attention. Exposed framing, plywood and softly textured walls retain a tactile presence. The calm comes from the relationship between materials, light and use, rather than from an absence of objects.

Conventional timber framing works with custom steel braces at the openings, keeping the generous views grounded in a clear structural approach. Yet the house does not seek complete transparency. The more contained ground floor supports the concentration of making, while the expanding upper floor accommodates shared domestic life. Its lookout is not simply a point from which to survey the landscape, but the culmination of a daily passage from things close at hand to the open horizon.

Design Teams: yate was established by architect Kenta Yano in 2021 and incorporated in 2025. Born in Tokyo in 1988, Yano graduated from Chiba Institute of Technology in 2011 and completed graduate studies in architecture at Tokyo City University in 2013. He worked at Tezuka Architects from 2013 to 2023. The practice spans architecture, interiors, exhibitions, bespoke furniture, and product and brand planning. Drawings, models and digital studies are used to test spatial ideas, supported by collaboration across disciplines. Yano worked with Maeda Koumuten on the joint design of Gazebo House.

Maeda Koumuten was founded by Tetsuo Maeda in 2004 and incorporated in 2009. Based in Ebina, Kanagawa, the company designs, builds and manages new construction and renovation projects, including houses, apartment buildings and commercial interiors. Its approach connects design with practical construction knowledge, using dialogue with clients to relate light, ventilation and views to everyday habits. Structure, insulation and waterproofing are considered throughout design development. For Gazebo House, the company served as both joint designer and contractor, carrying spatial decisions through to the timber structure, openings and material junctions.