Arched openings cut through walls of Takushu Arai's steel-plated house in Yokohama
Arched doorways and shuttered windows give this Japanese residence by Takushu Arai the appearance of an oversized playhouse (+ slideshow).
![House in Tama-plaza by Takushu ARAI Architects](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/08/House-in-Tama-plaza-by-Takushu-ARAI-Architects_dezeen_468_1.jpg)
Arai designed the House in Tama-plaza as a home for himself and his family in a densely populated area of Yokohama – a city located south of Tokyo in Kanagawa Prefecture.
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The six-metre-wide home is shoehorned into a narrow plot between a pair of existing residences and two streets. In order to provide a parking space against the front of the house and a small garden to the rear, the architect set the building back from the streets in the centre of the plot.
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The house is conceived as four overlapping volumes, each containing a separate function. It has a timber structure, covered externally in sheets of white Galvalume – a type of steel sheet coated with an aluminium and zinc alloy.
![House in Tama-plaza by Takushu ARAI Architects](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/08/House-in-Tama-plaza-by-Takushu-ARAI-Architects_dezeen_468_0.jpg)
These sheets feature different finishes, with both vertical and horizontal stripes, helping to highlight different blocks.
Dark hexagonal tiles pave a pathway that leads from the street to the arched front door of the property. Within, arched doorways and internal windows with curving tops or bottoms continue this detail.
![House in Tama-plaza by Takushu ARAI Architects](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/08/House-in-Tama-plaza-by-Takushu-ARAI-Architects_dezeen_468_5.jpg)
A triple-height atrium that runs through the core is overlooked by a pair of balconies and small shuttered windows that puncture the walls of the upper-floor bedrooms.
![House in Tama-plaza by Takushu ARAI Architects](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/08/House-in-Tama-plaza-by-Takushu-ARAI-Architects_dezeen_468_7.jpg)
"The main large volume at the centre has a high-rise void with a large window and skylight towards the sky," said Arai. "By integrating the individual spaces that are scattered inside as well, it forms an organic whole."
![House in Tama-plaza by Takushu ARAI Architects](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/08/House-in-Tama-plaza-by-Takushu-ARAI-Architects_dezeen_468_12.jpg)
The dining room, which occupies this tall and narrow space, is lit by a large skylight and window. Three pendant lights hang on long flexes from the tallest part of the ceiling over the wooden dining table.
![House in Tama-plaza by Takushu ARAI Architects](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/08/House-in-Tama-plaza-by-Takushu-ARAI-Architects_dezeen_468_8.jpg)
A single-height living room with a set of glass doors that open onto the garden sits to one side of the dining room, while an arched doorway at the other leads through to a galley kitchen.
![House in Tama-plaza by Takushu ARAI Architects](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/08/House-in-Tama-plaza-by-Takushu-ARAI-Architects_dezeen_468_9.jpg)
On the first floor a long wooden balcony used as a study runs across one side of the atrium, linking bedrooms positioned on either side.
![House in Tama-plaza by Takushu ARAI Architects](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/08/House-in-Tama-plaza-by-Takushu-ARAI-Architects_dezeen_468_10.jpg)
From here, a glazed door leads onto a roof terrace above the living room, while a ladder climbs to a "secret hideout" for the client's children.
![House in Tama-plaza by Takushu ARAI Architects](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/08/House-in-Tama-plaza-by-Takushu-ARAI-Architects_dezeen_468_11.jpg)
The walls are coated with white plaster throughout, while floors and stairs are covered in a combination of ash boards and poured concrete.
![House in Tama-plaza by Takushu ARAI Architects](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/08/House-in-Tama-plaza-by-Takushu-ARAI-Architects_dezeen_468_13.jpg)
Arched openings feature in a few houses around Japan, including a house in Kudamatsu, a renovated home in Tokyo and an apartment on the outskirts of the capital.
Photography is by Naomi Kurozumi.
![House in Tama-plaza by Takushu ARAI Architects](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/08/House-in-Tama-plaza-by-Takushu-ARAI-Architects_dezeen_1.gif)
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![House in Tama-plaza by Takushu ARAI Architects](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/08/House-in-Tama-plaza-by-Takushu-ARAI-Architects_dezeen_4.gif)