Tent Cabin in Omori
At first sight, this house invites a quiet question: could our earliest idea of home come from a night spent inside a tent, whispering with close friends? It recalls the intimacy of hands held together, and the sense of safety found in being gently enclosed by warmth. Before our idea of home was shaped by rules and conventions, what stayed with us was the simplest form of happiness: the comfort of falling asleep in peace, and the quiet anticipation of morning yet to come. This is a two-storey timber house designed for a young couple and their two children. Each family member has their own passions and rhythms; they wish for a home with a variety of places to retreat into and yet remain connected—so that their days could flow together without crowding into one another. The site lies along a small lane branching from a narrow road that faces the railway tracks. The bedrooms are set in an L-shape in plan, staggered by half a level to follow the natural gradient between the front road and the rear of the plot. Above the bedrooms, along the gentle climb of the staircase, a series of common spaces unfolds: a warm and cozy living corner, a dining area, a small painting atelier and a loft. These are gathered beneath four interlinked roofs, their forms draping softly over like a loose white cloth. A central pillar lifts the roof to form a ridge, from which the four roofs, one of them curved, fold down towards the edges, letting the relationship between the roof and floor shift as one moves through the building.
Climbing up the stairs from the entrance, the interior gradually opens, each step offering a new way of perceiving the roof line and the space beyond. Daylight slips through the cut edges of the roofs, grazing the curved roof form from the side, scattering colors that shift with the hour. The architects imagine this house as a shared fabric draped lightly embracing this family, where each person can find a corner to call their own, yet all remain under the same gentle shelter, under the same roof.
To evoke the image of a tent-like, pliant roof in timber construction, the team proposed forming a curved surface by laminating thin, bendable boards to a total thickness of about 40–50 mm. After discussions with the contractor and testing through mock-ups, the system was finalized as three layers of cedar boards, each 300 mm wide and 15 mm thick. Offsite, each board was carefully watered daily to soften the fibers, then bent over a curvature mould to follow the roof’s designed geometry. These pre-bent plies were transported to site, staggered at the joints, and bonded together with screws and adhesive to form a unified 45 mm-thick curved laminated roof. Measurements with MEMS acceleration sensors, conducted both in the factory and on site, showed that compared to a single 15 mm board, the 45 mm laminate achieved approximately 2.5 times higher natural vibration frequency. This confirmed that the assembly provided out-of-plane bending stiffness equivalent to that of a solid 40 mm board — while still preserving the lightness and pliant impression of fabric gently stretched into form.
Breaking away from the rigid, rectilinear image often associated with domestic architecture, this experimental process imbues the house with an inherent spirit of adventure. To live beneath this roof is to imagine a form of urban camping—where daily life unfolds with a sense of discovery, and each day carries the promise of something newly revealed.
Principal Designers | Kota Tamaki / Julia Li / Sei Hayashi / Koh Inami
Structure Design | Graph Studio / Yoshihiro Fukushima
Environmental Design | Studio Nora / Keiichiro Taniguchi
Textile Design | Haruka Shoji
Construction | Akashoshin Kaihatsu Ltd
Character of Space | Residence
Gross Floor Area | 77.85m²
Floor Area | 1F：40.52m² / 2F：37.33m²
Site Area | 83.70m²
Main Structure | Timber Post and Beam Construction
Foundation | Slab-on-grade Foundation
Engineering | Okima Densetsu / Fuji Setsubi
Location | Tokyo, Japan
