December 18, 2025

Living Under an Open Roof: Family Life in a Compact Tokyo Home

A family of five live in just 57sqm/613sqft, but an open-air living room makes this Tokyo home feel expansive, playful, and unexpectedly practical.

In Tokyo, a 57sqm/613sqft home with an open roof blurs indoors and outdoors. Plants grow beside the piano, baths happen within earshot of the living space, and storage hides in unexpected corners. The result is a practical, playful home that adapts to both the weather and the family living within it.

Writing:

Never Too Small

Writing:

Camilla Janse van Vuuren

Photography:

Never Too Small

Architect Home

Colours

Decorating

Dynamic Design

Flexible-use Zones

Multifunctional Spaces

Before

After

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“The house is so small that I can feel what's going on,” Japanese artist and architect Nobufumi ‘Zajirogh’ Takahashi says of his compact home designed with the help of architect Yoshitaka Suzuki. “My wife and my kids are talking and laughing, you can always feel it, and that is a very good thing.”

At just 57sqm/613sqft, Open Sky House feels larger than its footprint because the main living space is quite literally open to the sky – it’s part living room, part terrace, and part studio. Throughout the rest of the home, rooms are small, but no space sits idle: stairs double as storage, shelves double as ladders, and even the compact bathroom is designed for long, restorative baths at the end of the day. Nothing feels too precious. Materials get painted, repaired, or collaged when they break. Zajirogh often says that children grow up quickly, but he and his wife will be here for decades. This house reflects that philosophy.

The Inverted Courtyard: Where the Sky Is the Roof

The inverted courtyard sits at the centre of the home. It has no roof, just a piano and a TV (both behind sliding glass doors), a sofa, hanging lights, and whatever plants or artworks are being moved around that week. In good weather, Zajirogh, his wife Minori Takahashi, and their three children, cook, eat, paint, and play here, shifting things around to make space. When the weather turns, Zajirogh pulls a heavy tarp across the opening – a sail on a simple pulley system that has been adjusted and refined over the years. When snow or rain arrives, everything is brought in, the tarp is tensioned, and life turns inward for a while. This space never fully belongs indoors or outdoors, and that’s exactly as Zajirogh intended.

A heavy-duty tarp hangs above the open-air living room, pulled across on a simple pulley system whenever rain, snow, or strong sun makes the roofless space need temporary cover.

The tarp’s pulley system is the result of years of tinkering. Zajirogh says this latest version, now stable and easy to use, took around three years to perfect.

The courtyard serves as the family’s living room, furnished with a TV, piano, and sofa. Zajirogh says that with these three elements, the open-air space functions much like an indoor lounge.

Kitchen & Dining: Many Colours, Three Baby Chairs, One Long Table

The kitchen and dining area sit just inside the inverted courtyard. In the kitchen, a set of yellow-accent cupboards brings warmth and personality to the work area. Everyday storage is partly concealed behind a single sliding door; when it’s open, visitors see stacks of containers and ingredients ready to use, and when it’s closed, only the display shelves show. Three Stokke high chairs, bought one at a time as each child was born, line the table. When the children eventually move out, the chairs will go with them. Pendant lights by Ingo Maurer hang low over the table. The room is small, but everything is well organised, easy to reach, and full of colour, making it one of the most lively places in the house.

The kitchen sits directly beside the open-air courtyard, connected by large sliding doors. Above the kitchen table, three pendant lights replace the usual strip lights.

In the kitchen, open shelves are built around the family’s favourite containers, each spaced to fit perfectly. Yellow cupboards hide the less decorative items.

The stairs were kept open, so the space beneath them could be used for storage. A trolley shelf slides underneath, turning what would otherwise be dead space into an accessible everyday zone.

Bathroom & Bathing: Featuring a Surprising Window

At Open Sky House, the bath and toilet are separated to allow multiple routines to happen at once. Everyday toiletries live in a mirror cabinet just outside the bathroom itself, so the space can be used efficiently without everyone needing access at the same time. Set just off the courtyard, the bathroom remains close enough that voices and music drift in while someone is bathing. There is a small, sliding glass window between the entryway and the tub so that children coming home dirty from the park can get clean before stepping inside. But, as Zajirogh later discovered, the opening also lets the person bathing stay connected to what’s happening in the living room. A simple curtain folds down across the opening when privacy is needed. To keep the room easy to move through, there is a slim wash basin without a cabinet underneath, avoiding bulky storage at floor level.

A small sliding window connects the entrance to the bathtub, a practical detail Zajirogh added so the children can wash off after the park before stepping fully inside the house.

A simple curtain drops down across the bathroom opening when privacy is needed.

To keep mornings moving, everyday toiletries are stored in a mirror cabinet outside the bathroom, allowing the family to use the space at the same time rather than waiting their turn.

Study/Play Nook: Work, Games, and Sleep

At the top of the stairs, a compact landing becomes three things at once: a workspace, play zone, and bedroom. During the day, Zajirogh uses the small desk to work, looking out through a row of windows that face the balcony and the inverted courtyard. Behind a black door used as a noticeboard, Zajirogh keeps a tiny 1sqm study – just enough room for a bucket used as a stool, a desk, storage shelves and the drawings or collages he is working on. In the evenings, the couple lay out fold-up futons and the room becomes their sleeping area. The shelves along the wall hold games and books, including many manga comics, and the children often hang out here to play video games. There is a structured fluidity to the space. The furniture moves as needed, storage is tucked under the stairs, and the space shifts from day to night with very little effort.

Upstairs, a flexible room serves as a workstation, play zone, and bedroom. The kids use it for games during the day, and in the evenings Zajirogh and Minori roll out their futons to sleep.

Tucked behind a small door upstairs is Zajirogh’s 1sqm study – a narrow space where he draws and works.

An IKEA light hangs above the play area; Zajirogh chose it because its shape reminded him of his own house form.

Zajirogh built the fold-down desks himself, creating compact work surfaces that open for working or drawing and fold away when more space is needed.

Kids’ Sleeping Loft & Storage: Shelves That Become a Ladder

Beside the study is the children’s room, where sleeping and storage are stacked vertically to make the most of the available footprint. The beds sit on a raised platform above a shared desk, so homework and hanging out happen directly underneath where they sleep. There used to be a separate ladder to reach the loft, but Zajirogh and his son built shelving that serves as the way up: step onto the lower shelf, and continue climbing to the top. The route is part staircase, part playground, and saves valuable space by removing the need for a dedicated ladder. Extra storage tucks into the loft and along the wall, remaining easy to see and reach. For now, the room is communal, but one day it could be divided into smaller bedrooms if the children want more privacy.