MINNA NO IE
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Site Area: 67.79 sqm
Floor Area: 53.4 sqm
Structural System: Steel
Architect: Akira Mada + Maya Mada / mamm-design
Structural Engineer: Ohno JAPAN
Lighting Designer: LIGHTDESIGN
Photo ?Daici Ano
The house is located in a residential district, just a few stops far from the centre of Tokyo. The
plot is 4.5m wide and 12m deep wedged between houses in every direction. To escape the
claustrophobic living situation in the city, we tried to extend our consciousness beyond the
borders of this physically tiny site. The project’s name, “MINNA NO IE” (Everyone’s House),
suggests that the house has no strict borders.
In Japanese residential district, we have to leave at least 50cm gap between neighbouring plots.
To make openings towards those void spaces carefully, we can feel the house much larger than
its floor area of 54 square-meters.
The 6-meters-high garden room in the middle of the house brings a sense of outdoors with its
grey brick floor. When you enter the house, you may feel as if you are back to outside. You may
feel as if you would be in a small park in a city somewhere. But the next moment, you will feel the
space as interior, where the occupants spend their daily lives. It’s this co-existence that gives the
house its unique atmosphere.
Each small room has an open connection with the garden room, no doors at all. The void space
works as a catalyst between these spaces and creates variety of relationships among its
