MV—006
Higashiyama Machiya
Kyoto · Japan
The Residence
- Bedrooms
- 3
- Bathrooms
- 2
- Interior
- 221 m²
- Plot
- 0.04 ha
- Architect
- Takeo Arakawa-Finch, 2020
- Year
- Edo period · restored 2020
- Location
- Kyoto, Japan
- Reference
- MV—006
- Guide
- Price on Request
A townhouse rebuilt around a century-old maple. Tatami, cedar, and the weather of the eastern hills.
The machiya was taken apart in 2017 and put back together, beam by beam, over three years. A maple already in the central courtyard — now over one hundred years old — dictated everything: the height of the second floor, the depth of the eaves, the position of the bath.
Takeo Arakawa-Finch, who led the restoration, insists that nothing was modernised. The house is warmed by a single irori hearth, cooled by cross-ventilation through the courtyard, and lit by paper.
Three bedrooms, two tatami rooms, a small study that looks directly at the tree.
Character
- — Courtyard maple
- — Irori hearth
- — Paper & cedar
- — Higashiyama quarter
Every residence is opened personally, in its own season.