Five young Japanese architects all living and working in London, chose a site and designed a home, setting their own brief and creating their own imaginary client. Working in the evenings and at weekends (all have day-jobs working for established firms such as Stanton Williams and Sheppard Robson) they produced a series of beautifully detailed models and drawings to explain their ideas.

Nest by Hiroki Kakizoe is a house for a family that lives and works at home. Located on Shoreditch High Street it occupies the site18th century terraced house. Where a conventional English house would have a solid front wall of brick with openings, Kakizoe’s house has a translucent façade etched with the pattern of the original. Inside privacy can be found in a series of floating nests, which accommodate functions such as sleeping and bathing.

Tokuichiro Oba was another to explore notions of public and private. His ‘Small House inside a Ruin’ provides a home for an artist located in the former Wiltshire Brewery in Bethnal Green. Sliding doors open up the walls so that a large studio space becomes a public gallery.

Read the full article at Blueprint Magazine