Location: Nagoya, Japan

Design Team: 12mm architects

Area: 53 m²

Year: 2025

Photography: Takashi Uemura

Design Features: Small House on a Slope stands where a Nagoya residential district meets a grove of mixed woodland. Designed by 12mm architects for a client who had collected furniture and lighting over many years, the house occupies a site that falls 1.2 to 5.4 m below the sloping road, with only a modest level patch near its centre. Rather than reshaping the whole terrain, the architect placed a restrained square volume on this usable ground and allowed the dwelling to sit lightly beside the trees.

The ground floor is a 7.28 m by 7.28 m square with a building and total floor area of 53 m². A compact service band contains the wash area, bathroom, toilet and storage; the remaining 39 m² becomes one room continuous with the entrance. A 13 m² loft, excluded from the stated total floor area, is added along the woodland side. Kitchen volume, furniture, posts and changes in height define living, dining and sleeping zones without fragmenting the plan.

From the entrance, the view follows the timber floor through the main room toward the fully glazed woodland edge. Low storage and a bed platform settle against the perimeter, while the client's table, chairs, sofa and lamps form relaxed centres of occupation. A slender ladder nearly disappears against the grey wall. Above, the loft remains visually connected to the room below, adding flexibility and storage while opening the compact section upward.

The project is organised around the idea of permeation. Instead of opening every elevation to nature, the house directs its principal glazing toward the grove, where privacy is more secure, and keeps two other sides largely closed. The trees become a deliberately selected orientation rather than a generic backdrop: filtered light, weather and seasonal change enter daily life, while blinds, glass and shadow soften the boundary between room and woodland.

Grey plaster covers the internal walls and ceiling, producing a quiet surface that absorbs shifting light. Outside, horizontally laid silver Galvalume steel draws roof and walls into an almost continuous shell. Timber floors, exposed wood and the client's collected furniture warm the grey interior, while the stainless-steel kitchen and reduced fittings preserve its calm precision. In suitable light, a faint green reflection from the trees appears on the metal roof, turning the envelope into a record of its surroundings.

Small House on a Slope answers difficult ground by reducing rather than enlarging: fewer partitions, one concentrated opening and a complete one-room field turn 53 m² into an adaptable framework for living. Its character comes from the exact relationship between scale, objects and environment. Architecture recedes, furniture becomes a set of coordinates, and the woodland measures time around a square room whose perceptual reach exceeds its floor area.

Design Team: 12mm architects was founded by Hajime Nimura in 2006 and is based in Nagoya, Japan. Its work spans houses, shops, renovation, furniture and exhibition design. The practice describes architecture through less tangible conditions—light, shadow, wind, temperature, touch, distance, atmosphere and spatial pause—and develops those conditions through close attention to site and daily life.

Hajime Nimura led the design, with construction by Hayakawa Komuten. The project began with the client's existing furniture, lighting, everyday objects and preferences, allowing possessions to influence dimensions, colours, material finishes and empty space. The square volume, one-room plan and single principal woodland edge demonstrate how the studio places environmental response and individual ways of living within the same design framework.