Masako house is the renovation of 2LDK danchi Japanese apartment, a typology conceived as a standardized solution to the lack of suburban housing during the post-world war economy boom.
After 30 years she started to live by herself again and needed a renovation according to this new situation. Masako wanted her house more open, connected, wider and personal while keeping it practical. She loves to enjoy a balanced life through cooking, exercising, studying, and playing with her grandsons. We connected the living and bedroom so her grandsons can play better, open a study room towards the entrance to allow visits to come in and redesigned the kitchen for Masako to address her guests while cooking and watching Mount Fuji.
During the years she gathered beautiful Japanese kitchenware that she wanted to storage with love, so we provided large kitchen storage to showcase them.
Masako practices yoga every morning with a big stability ball that she wanted to storage easily on her room. YSLA designed a custom-made triangular shape closet to fit the ball so she doesn’t lose space in the room.
The triangular shape concept served us to provide wider areas in the storages for special objects and to design elements or spaces that required a more comfortable dimension. Following this design key, we enlarged the genkan (Japanese area to take out the shoes), the wooden flooring around the stove, and the door handles so she can live more comfortable.