Kyoto House interior redesign for a transcultural family life
In the heart of Kyoto, a Japanese city famous for its balance of tradition and modernity, a 40-year-old house has been sensitively reimagined for a US family in just four months and to a strict budget by the architectural team at RO+A, in close collaboration with local Japanese construction company Dezao.
The client, an eminent American professor of physics, had a special relationship with Kyoto after living, working and raising his family there for several years. He wanted his family’s new home in the city, a secondary house to their main residence in the US, to echo Japan’s architectural and cultural heritage, while creating a comfortable, modern and contemporary family home.
Robert Olson & Associates were commissioned to design and manage the Japanese project after developing a close relationship with the client while working on the design of his laboratory and his faculty office in the 2000s.
“He came to us because he already knew and trusted our process and our sensitivity to context,” explains Rob Olson, founder and principal of Robert Olson & Associates. “Our brief here was to transform the Kyoto house into a modern family home, but one that would respect the Japanese traditions of architecture, light, materials, and way of life.”
The original house, built in the early 1980s, had a tired and dated interior, with proportions, materials and layout that reflected a more utilitarian time in Japan’s residential construction. 
“The challenge was how to take this worn old house and turn it into a home that echoed the palette of images and ideas that our client had brought to us,” says Rob.
The design process began with conversations, about lifestyle and function, as well as philosophy and space. The professor and his family wanted a home that would allow them to live in harmony with Japanese sensibilities: spatial fluidity,
the importance of threshold and reverence for natural materials were all key considerations.
The densely built housing in that area of Kyoto meant that making alterations to the building’s exterior was virtually impossible, so the redesign had to focus entirely on the house’s interior. Rob and his colleague Toshiharu Tanobe developed the design together. Toshi was central to the process and, thanks to his fluent Japanese, was able to communicate directly with the construction company Dezao as well as translating RO+A’s drawing notes and written materials into Japanese.
“The Japanese builders were outstanding,” says Rob. “They not only understood our drawings and intentions but interpreted them with speed and precision, bringing a depth of local knowledge that really added to the project, especially in the sourcing of materials, and we worked seamlessly with them as one team.”
Their design intent was not to impose a Westernised design or to retrofit modern-day luxury living into an existing shell, but to work with the structure of the building, adding modern features and modularity while respecting Japanese traditions.
Greater openness and flow were achieved by enlarging and repositioning several wall openings to create a large flexible central living room with walls and ceilings framed to express a modularity and set of proportions integrated with the logic of the house. Shoji-style sliding screens were installed in the more traditional spaces of the house, with curtains in modern areas and privacy respected in every room.
Throughout the design, the choice of materials was fundamental: tatami mats were restored in the “Japanese room” and one of the children’s bedrooms, while traditional scalloped wood, or ‘naguri’, was employed on the main level floor to contrast with local stone within the ‘genkan’ entrance area. Stone tiles in a fine linear mosaic provide the transition from the naguri to teak floors within the new living room .
Native woods such as cedar and chestnut, along with teak flooring, were introduced, each with their own subtle colour scheme, juxtaposed with clean white paintwork, while traditional woven wood ‘ajiro’ ceiling panels were used in the main room. Meanwhile the height of the doors was extended to meet the needs of the taller American family, and insulation was incorporated to guard against the cold Kyoto winters.
In the bathroom, a separate toilet, and the kitchen, ultra-modern prefabricated systems manufactured by Japanese brands Toto and Panasonic were installed, quickly creating contemporary, calm spaces enhanced by the most modern of technologies.
“This beautiful house now exists in a space between two worlds, Japanese and Western, modern and traditional, private and open,” says Rob. “Above all, it is a home: a place for our client’s family to study and work, play and rest.
“We were very much aware that we needed to honour the spirit of Kyoto and Japanese life while ensuring the house worked practically and emotionally for its new owners. That balance is always delicate, but when it’s achieved, as I believe it has been in this project, it’s very powerful.”
“We always work closely with real respect for the input and perspectives of the contractors and craftsmen in any project, whether it is just over the Charles River in Cambridge, in upstate New Hampshire, or in this case many thousands of miles away.
Our vision and the sensitivity we bring to our client’s space can all be undone if we don’t have a real understanding between us and the skilled craftsmen who are delivering the physical work, it is absolutely a partnership.”
Rob added: “The whole team is very happy with what we’ve achieved with the design of this house. Working in wonderful symbiosis with the building company, we created this beautiful, peaceful home in just four months and to a strictly observed budget.
“We were tasked with creating a modern rendition of a traditional articulated residential space and we have done that, taking it to another level thanks to the shared values of our own team, the Kyoto builders and our client himself.”
