The Essence Of Emptiness

Architect Luke Hayward reveals what inspired Terrace House in Kyoto, Japan.

- Joanne Molina

As a brilliantly choreographed staging of shadow and light, Terrace House is an exercise in both extreme restraint and excess. A clear nod to a notion of abundance linked to materiality, its textures and surfaces create a frame in its owners can experience space in all of its complexity.

Located near Demachiyanagi – a typical post-war Japanese row house nestled in the quiet northern suburbs of Kyoto City – Terrace House needed an extensive renovation and extension. Originally constructed in the 1950s as part of a block of similar small houses (the floor area is only 40 m2), it served as home to a single family until it was eventually vacated and left to dilapidate for over a decade.

When Luke Hayward, principal of architecture and design studio atelier Luke, accepted the project he did so because it spoke to him in a very particular kind of way.

“The home represents an effort to refine and elaborate on the approach developed with our past work in Japan. I’ve become very interested in creating places with a strong spatial experience; there is a unique feeling of being in the spaces of this home, which is more powerful than simply creating image or composition. The sequencing of spaces and the experience of moving through them is also essential,” explains Hayward.

The renovation meant that Hayward removed everything – leaving what was essentially a timber interior with a dark black stain. Internally, all linings were removed, laying bare the skeletal timber structure. This process of peeling back revealed large timber roof beams that had been concealed for over half a century.