House NA by Sou Fujimoto in the Tokyo area of Nakano could be distinguished as a three-story single-family home that is similar in form to a stacked pile of glass boxes of different sizes.

House NA by Sou Fujimoto could be distinguished as a three-story single-family home that is similar in form to a stacked pile of glass boxes of different sizes. The internal areas are set at different elevations. The steps between the plates at times will become seating and desks, at times as a device segmenting a territory, and at times, each akin to leaves of the foliage filtering light down into the space.

Ladder stairs connect the small rooms within each of these different elevations and allow free movement through the building. Most of the façade is made of glass, and since only a few of the interior walls are solid, the view within the building, from one elevation to another, as well as to the outside, is almost unobstructed. For privacy and separation in the nighttime, curtains become temporary partitions.

Sou Fujimoto explains, “In one way, the house is like a single space, but each room is also a tiny space of its own. The clients said they wanted to live like nomads within the house – they didn’t have specific plans for each room. The house looks radical, but for the clients, it seemed quite natural.”

source: architecture-tokyo.com