FORM/Kouichi Kimura builds 73-square-metre Minimalist House in Shiga

A 73-square-metre home in Shiga prefecture, Japan, challenges the assumption that a house for one person must feel small. Local studio FORM/Kouichi Kimura Architects designed Minimalist House as cubic volumes clad in corrugated metal and black render, perched on a hill overlooking Lake Biwa.

The project brief was a home for a single occupant. Founder Kouichi Kimura rejected the compact typology that usually follows. "When hearing 'a home for a single occupant', people typically imagine a compact house," Kimura told Dezeen. "Here, living alone is regarded not as a spatial constraint, but as a condition that liberates space."

"Starting from the individual as the base unit, the house explores a new way of single-person living through the minimal composition reduced to the essentials, with the space that invites in the surrounding view, light, wind, and sound," he added.

The studio answered the brief with a series of voids and long sightlines that it said help to "liberate space".

How does the plan organise 73 square metres?

A tall void cuts through the centre of the house. It extends upwards into a skinny, double-height volume that projects from the roof with a large window.

Grey-plastered walls and dark stone floors finish the interiors. A kitchen, dining space and study occupy the ground floor, with metal and concrete steps leading up to a living space and bedroom above.

"Each floor is designed as a single open layout," explained Kimura. "The double-height space vertically connects the upper and lower levels. Manipulating floor and ceiling levels gently articulates each space without clearly dividing them."

Facing the road, the front elevation stays almost entirely blank. The interiors open on the opposite side towards views of the lake, with the dining table, study and bed pushed up against large, deep-set windows.

The upper-level living space doubles as a room for music. "Within the double-height volume, sound resonates off the walls and ceiling, filling the entire space," said Kimura.

What does the detached washroom change?

A glass corridor with sliding doors separates the main house from a single-storey washroom. The studio placed the wet areas outside the primary structure so that this everyday passage would capture views over the lake.

"Placing these wet areas away from the main structure creates a natural flow of movement in daily life," Kimura explained. "Walking through the glazed corridor in between allows one to touch the landscape, light, and breeze, offering a gentle transition in the everyday time."

Minimalist forms and interiors recur across the studio's work in Shiga. Previous projects include a blocky combined hair salon and home completed in 2021, and a skinny house with carefully placed windows to avoid overlooking neighbours, finished in 2019. Minimalist House extends that lineage: a monochrome palette, pared-back open interiors, and one double-height void standing in for square metres a single client never needed.