#HTE

Tokyo House Interior Features an Enormous Elliptical Catwalk

Here’s an interesting use of an oddly-shaped interior. Tasked with renovating a house in Tokyo with a slanted roof, under which a full second storey wouldn’t fit, Murayama + Kato Architecture added a sort of elliptical catwalk around the perimeter of the main room.

There’s only enough headspace for an adult to stand on the staircase end of the catwalk, where “It feels like you are standing on a pond and looking into the deep bottom,” according to M+KA.

Beyond that area, the catwalk provides space to sit on the floor (not a problem in Japan) and, at the kitchen end, a tiny percentage of it can be used as overhead shelf space.

We could never have interiors like this in America because of, well, litigation. Any American architect attempting something like this would have probably covered the opening with a comprehensive hammock, which I think would ruin the effect.

The unseen bedrooms, by the way, are down the flight of stairs by the kitchen.

via Curbed