Large Reasoning Models (LRMs), trained from LLMs using reinforcement learning (RL), demonstrated great performance in complex reasoning tasks, including mathematics, STEM, and coding. However, existing LRMs face challenges in completing various puzzle tasks that require purely logical reasoning skills, which are easy and obvious for humans. Current methods targeting puzzles focus only on designing benchmarks for evaluation, lacking the training methods and resources for modern LLMs to tackle this challenge. Current puzzle datasets lack diversity and scalability, covering limited puzzle types with little control over generation or difficulty. Moreover, due to the success of the “LLM+RLVR” paradigm, it has become crucial to obtain large, diverse, and challenging sets of verifiable puzzle prompts for training agents. Reinforcement Learning with Verifiable Rewards (RLVR) has emerged as a key method for improving models’ reasoning capabilities, removing the need for reward models by directly assigning rewards based on objectively verifiable answers. Puzzles are particularly well-suited for RLVR. However, most prior RLVR research has overlooked the puzzles’ potential for delivering effective reward signals. In puzzle reasoning of LLMs, existing benchmarks evaluate different types of reasoning, including abstract, deductive, and compositional reasoning. Few benchmarks support scalable generation and difficulty control but lack puzzle diversity. Moreover, the improvement of LLMs’ puzzle-solving abilities mainly falls into two categories: tool integration and RLVR. Researchers from ByteDance Seed, Fudan University, Tsinghua University, Nanjing University, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University have proposed Enigmata, the first comprehensive toolkit designed for improving LLMs with puzzle reasoning skills. It contains 36 tasks across seven categories, each featuring a generator that produces unlimited examples with controllable difficulty and a rule-based verifier for automatic evaluation. The researchers further developed Enigmata-Eval as a rigorous benchmark and created optimized multi-task RLVR strategies. Puzzle data from Enigmata enhances SoTA performance on advanced math and STEM reasoning tasks like AIME, BeyondAIME, and GPQA when trained on larger models like Seed1.5-Thinking. This shows the generalization benefits of Enigmata. The Enigmata-Data comprises 36 puzzle tasks organized into 7 primary categories, including Crypto, Arithmetic, Logic, Grid, Graph, Search, and Sequential Puzzle, making it the only dataset having multiple task categories with scalability, automatic verification, and public availability. The data construction follows a three-phase pipeline: Tasks Collection and Design, Auto-Generator and Verifier Development, and Sliding Difficulty Control. Moreover, the Enigmata-Eval is developed by systematically sampling from the broader dataset, aiming to extract 50 instances per difficulty level for each task. The final evaluation set contains 4,758 puzzle instances rather than the theoretical maximum of 5,400, due to inherent constraints, where some tasks generate fewer instances per difficulty level. The proposed model outperforms most public models on Enigmata-Eval with 32B parameters, showing the effectiveness of the dataset and training recipe. The model stands out on the challenging ARC-AGI benchmark, surpassing strong reasoning models such as Gemini 2.5 Pro, o3-mini, and o1. The Qwen2.5-32B-Enigmata shows outstanding performance in structured reasoning categories, outperforming in Crypto, Arithmetic, and Logic tasks, suggesting effective development of rule-based reasoning capabilities. The model shows competitive performance in search tasks that require strategic exploration and planning capabilities. Moreover, Crypto and Arithmetic tasks tend to provide the highest accuracy, while spatial and sequential tasks remain more difficult. In this paper, researchers introduced Enigmata, a comprehensive suite for equipping LLMs with advanced puzzle reasoning that integrates seamlessly with RL using verifiable rule-based rewards. The trained Enigmata-Model shows superior performance and robust generalization skills through RLVR training. Experiments reveal that when applied to larger models such as Seed1.5-Thinking (20B/200B parameters), synthetic puzzle data brings additional benefits in other domains, including mathematics and STEM reasoning over state-of-the-art models. Enigmata provides a solid foundation for the research community to advance reasoning model development, offering a unified framework that effectively bridges logical puzzle-solving with broader reasoning capabilities in LLMs. Check out the Paper, GitHub Page and Project Page. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also, feel free to follow us on Twitter and don’t forget to join our 95k+ ML SubReddit and Subscribe to our Newsletter. Sajjad AnsariSajjad Ansari is a final year undergraduate from IIT Kharagpur. As a Tech enthusiast, he delves into the practical applications of AI with a focus on understanding the impact of AI technologies and their real-world implications. He aims to articulate complex AI concepts in a clear and accessible manner.Sajjad Ansarihttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sajjadansari/Multimodal Foundation Models Fall Short on Physical Reasoning: PHYX Benchmark Highlights Key Limitations in Visual and Symbolic IntegrationSajjad Ansarihttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sajjadansari/Meta AI Introduces Multi-SpatialMLLM: A Multi-Frame Spatial Understanding with Multi-modal Large Language ModelsSajjad Ansarihttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sajjadansari/Can LLMs Really Judge with Reasoning? Microsoft and Tsinghua Researchers Introduce Reward Reasoning Models to Dynamically Scale Test-Time Compute for Better AlignmentSajjad Ansarihttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sajjadansari/NVIDIA AI Introduces AceReason-Nemotron for Advancing Math and Code Reasoning through Reinforcement Learning

“Decoy Boy.” All images © Michael Ezzell, shared with permission In ‘The Junior Classic,’ Michael Ezzell Builds an Uncanny World from Vintage Books May 27, 2025 ArtIllustration Kate Mothes It’s not too often that a high school art project morphs into a through-line in an artist’s professional practice, but for illustrator and printmaker Michael Ezzell, that’s exactly how his ongoing series The Junior Classic was born. Tearing pages from vintage books, he experiments with a range of media, compositional elements, and narratives that then inspire further paintings and prints. “When I was starting out, I would just paint over the text of the page and create something brand new from some mundane book I had,” Ezzell tells Colossal. “Eventually, it evolved into using the page’s illustration or ornate chapter headings as a jumping-off point for what I would create on the page.” “Cloudmaker” Among many others, Ezzell especially graviates toward illustrations in the Alice in Wonderland series, originally drawn by Sir John Tenniel and reimagined during subsequent decades by more than half a dozen other artists like Mabel Lucie Attwell, Gwynedd M. Hudson, Maria L. Kirk, and even Salvador Dalí. “I’ve gotten my book-hunting more down to a science now,” the artist says. “I look for weird and obscure manuals or children’s books with lots of pictures or funky text formatting. Anything that could have strange connotations when taken out of context is what I’m drawn to.” He approaches each page’s inherent qualities—a printed phrase or a small drawing—like a prompt or a call-and-response, which taps into a refreshingly different kind of problem-solving than working on a large, blank canvas. Ezzell is particularly interested in world-building and immersive stories, and his motifs and characters take cues from tarot, Surrealism, playing cards, and early-20th-century fashion. The title of the series nods to a set of 10 books titled The Junior Classics, first published in 1912, which were intended for young readers as a counterpart to the Harvard Classics series. The Junior Classic consists of more than 400 pieces (and growing), and Ezzell is currently working on his own tarot deck, which in turn is inspiring more narrative possibilities. See more on the artist’s website and Instagram. “Two Rivers” “Now Here” “Three Phases of Mitsy Diller” “Mind Over Matter” “Love Makes the World Go Down” “The Escapist” “The Great Cassino” “The Duchess” Next article

Peace Garden at UNESCO | © INFGM Located within the headquarters of UNESCO in Paris, the Peace Garden by Isamu Noguchi emerges not merely as a landscape installation but as a profound meditation on postwar diplomacy and cultural synthesis. Commissioned in the mid-1950s, the garden symbolizes the United Nations’ commitment to peace through mutual understanding and cultural dialogue. Peace Garden at UNESCO Technical Information Artist1-2: Isamu Noguchi Location: 7 Place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris, France Client: Marcel Breuer / UNESCO Area: 2,400 m2 | 25,800 Sq. Ft. Project Year: 1958 Photographs: © INFGM and Flick Users, See Caption Details It should be a quiet, moving place. – Isamu Noguchi 3 Peace Garden at UNESCO Photographs © INFGM © INFGM © INFGM © INFGM © INFGM © INFGM © bbonthebrink, Flickr User © Patrice Todisco © bbonthebrink, Flickr User © bbonthebrink, Flickr User © Dalbera, Flckr user © Dalbera, Flckr user Park View Park View Context and Commission Noguchi, a Japanese-American sculptor and designer, was a poignant choice for the task. His biography embodies a convergence of East and West, as well as a lifelong engagement with public space as a vehicle for social commentary. By the time of his UNESCO commission, Noguchi had already engaged with landscape-scale sculptures, memorials, and playgrounds. The Peace Garden offered an opportunity to distill these threads into a singular work situated at the crossroads of global diplomacy. His selection was shaped by the broader architectural ethos of the UNESCO campus, designed by an international team including Marcel Breuer, Pier Luigi Nervi, and Bernard Zehrfuss. The ensemble called for a complementary but ideologically rich intervention, a space that could resonate as much with symbolic gravitas as with formal clarity. This garden was Noguchi’s first realized landscape design, and its execution was made possible through a personal introduction from Marcel Breuer, the chief architect of the UNESCO headquarters. Breuer not only facilitated the commission but also supported Noguchi’s experimental vision, which would challenge prevailing notions of diplomatic landscaping. Notably, the garden was completed in 1958 and spans approximately 2,400 square meters. It was constructed by renowned Kyoto-based master gardener Sano Toemon, marking a cross-cultural collaboration between modernist sculpture and traditional Japanese craftsmanship. Design Philosophy and Symbolic Intent Noguchi approached the Peace Garden as both sculptor and spatial thinker. He resisted creating a traditional memorial or a didactic allegory of peace. Instead, he crafted a contemplative void, a space that, through its absence of overt narrative, invited personal reflection and multiple interpretations. Drawing on the vocabulary of Japanese rock gardens and Zen traditions, Noguchi created a space of abstract expression that nonetheless maintained universal accessibility. The garden is composed of roughly hewn granite stones, a central water basin, and minimal vegetation. Each element is carefully positioned, creating an orchestrated tension between natural materiality and deliberate composition. This spatial language evokes notions of impermanence, balance, and introspection. The garden does not dictate how peace should be understood; rather, it sets a stage for experiencing peace as a spatial and emotional condition. In Noguchi’s words, the garden was to be “a quiet, moving place” rather than a monument. While inspired by Japanese garden typologies, particularly the stroll garden (池泉回遊式), Noguchi chose not to replicate tradition. Instead, he abstracted and reinterpreted elements such as Mt. Horai rock formations, stepping stones, and a crouching basin. These forms subtly allude to symbolic motifs without prescribing a singular reading. Noguchi negotiated directly with the Japanese government to secure donations of ten tons of stone and plant materials including camellias, maples, cherry trees, and bamboo. This act itself underscored the garden’s role as a diplomatic gesture, embedding it with botanical references to Japanese identity while maintaining a universal design language. Material and Spatial Composition Set at the base of the UNESCO building, the Peace Garden establishes a counterpoint to the architectural massing surrounding it. Its recessed layout forms a kind of spatial cloister, shielding visitors from the city’s rhythm and inviting a slower, more inward pace. The materials, chiefly unpolished granite, gravel, and water, speak to both permanence and mutability. The granite stones, irregular yet intentional in placement, recall tectonic forms and ancient spiritual markers. The central water feature introduces subtle movement and sound, enhancing the sensory richness of the space. The garden’s compositional core is its sculptural use of stone, each placement a spatial decision echoing both tectonic memory and sculptural intentionality. Noguchi collaborated on-site with Sano Toemon, whose craftsmanship adapted in real-time to the artist’s rapidly evolving vision. According to Sano, it was only after intense on-site dialogue and shared experience that he could fully comprehend and execute Noguchi’s aesthetic strategy, a testament to the garden’s improvisational and relational genesis. Spatially, the garden is organized not around pathways but around moments. There is no linear procession or axial symmetry; instead, it offers a field of relationships. Voids and solids, shadows and reflections, horizontality and vertical interruptions all work together to create a space that must be experienced slowly and from multiple vantage points. The absence of overt hierarchy in the layout allows users to construct their own narratives. It is a non-prescriptive space in which silence, texture, and light become the principal mediums of meaning. Peace Garden at UNESCO Plans Floor Plan | © Isamu Noguchi Floor Plan | © Isamu Noguchi Peace Garden at UNESCO Image Gallery About Isamu Noguchi Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) was a Japanese-American sculptor, landscape architect, and designer renowned for his fusion of Eastern and Western aesthetics. Trained under Constantin Brâncuși and deeply influenced by Japanese traditions, Noguchi’s work spanned sculpture, furniture, stage sets, and public spaces. His practice was rooted in a belief that art should be integrated into everyday life, often blurring the boundaries between art, architecture, and landscape. Notable for his minimal yet emotionally resonant forms, Noguchi’s legacy includes iconic works such as the Noguchi Table, the UNESCO Peace Garden in Paris, and the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum in New York. Credits and Additional Notes Style: Stroll Garden, Contemporary Japanese Garden Main Contractor: Sano Toemon, in collaboration with Uetō Zōen Listening to Stone: The Art and Life of Isamu Noguchi by Hayden Herrera Torres, Ana Maria. Isamu Noguchi: Studies in Space. Tokyo: Marumo Publishing, 2000. pp. 96–109. Sasaki, Yōji. “What Isamu Noguchi Left Behind.” Japan Landscape, no. 16, Process Architecture, 1990, p. 87. Treib, Marc. Noguchi in Paris: The UNESCO Garden. San Francisco: William Stout Publishers and UNESCO Publishing, 2004. Overseas Japanese Gardens Database. “UNESCO Garden.” Accessed May 2025.

  Photography has remained fundamentally horizontal for over a century. Fujifilm’s latest creation shatters this convention with stunning simplicity. The new X half premium compact digital camera transforms how we capture images by embracing vertical orientation as its foundational design principle. This revolutionary approach acknowledges our smartphone-shaped world while delivering an experience distinctly separate from mobile photography. The camera challenges our assumptions about what photography tools should look like and how they should function. Its design speaks to a generation that consumes images vertically but craves tactile experiences beyond touchscreens. Designer: Fujifilm Design Origin & Philosophy The X half emerged from Fujifilm’s experimental design workshops, where creative freedom flourishes without immediate commercial pressure. These sessions allow designers to explore concepts that challenge conventional thinking about cameras. During one particularly productive workshop, a designer named Bueno presented a fully realized mock-up addressing his personal frustration with film photography’s ongoing costs. As noted in Fujifilm’s development history, Bueno loved shooting film but found it financially challenging, which sparked his creative solution. This origin story reveals a fascinating inversion of traditional product development cycles. Bueno’s concept arrived as a complete physical design with no internal components or technical specifications. The engineering team faced the unusual challenge of building technology to fit an established form rather than designing around predetermined components. Senior leadership immediately recognized the concept’s potential, supporting this rare bottom-up development process that preserved the designer’s original vision. The concept brilliantly translates half-frame film photography into digital form. Traditional half-frame cameras, popular for their economy and distinctive aesthetic, captured two vertical images on a single 35mm film frame. This digital interpretation maintains that vertical orientation while eliminating film costs entirely. Fujifilm went further by incorporating intentional constraints that shape the photographic experience. Physical Design & Ergonomics The camera lacks image stabilization and captures JPEGs exclusively without RAW capability. These aren’t technical limitations but deliberate design decisions that encourage a specific relationship with photography. Users focus on composition and timing rather than post-processing possibilities or technical perfection. The design philosophy prioritizes the act of seeing over technical manipulation, encouraging photographers to develop their eye rather than their editing skills. The X half weighs a mere 240 grams (8.5 ounces), lighter than many smartphones despite its purposeful construction. Its compact dimensions (105.8mm x 64.3mm x 30.0mm) make it genuinely pocketable, fitting comfortably in standard jeans pockets without the awkward bulge larger cameras create. Fujifilm selected a fixed 10.8mm F2.8 prime lens, equivalent to 32mm in traditional 35mm format. This focal length provides the perfect balance between environmental context and subject isolation. According to the product specifications, this specific field of view mirrors that of the beloved Fujifilm QuickSnap disposable cameras, creating an immediately familiar perspective that feels natural for everyday photography. The most innovative physical element is undoubtedly the Frame Advance Lever. This mechanical component serves genuine functions beyond nostalgic decoration. Users physically advance the digital frame, combining two vertical images into diptychs or merging short video clips with still photographs. The tactile resistance of the lever makes each frame advance a deliberate act, reinforcing intentionality in image-making. Interface & User Experience Fujifilm reimagined the camera interface from first principles rather than adapting existing designs. The 2.4-inch touch screen provides intuitive control without overwhelming complexity. Traditional button arrays have been replaced with gesture controls that feel natural to digital natives while maintaining connections to analog processes. The interface allows users to adjust the dividing line between frames. According to the technical documentation, photographers can select narrow, regular, or bold styles reminiscent of Instax prints, and even change the color between black and white. Switching between color and monochrome modes happens through simple, intuitive controls that don’t interrupt the photographic process. The true interface innovation appears when connecting to smartphones. The camera simulates a film development process when transferring images. Users select which “roll” to import, initiating a development sequence that builds anticipation. The digital contact sheet displays edge codes that reference specific film simulations, such as “RTR” for retro filter. This thoughtful replication of analog workflows transforms routine file transfer into a meaningful experience that enhances the photographer’s connection to their images. The menu system abandons conventional hierarchical organization for a more intuitive approach. Instead of burying options within nested submenus, the interface presents contextually relevant controls based on shooting mode and camera orientation. This adaptive interface reduces the cognitive load on photographers, allowing them to focus on image-making rather than menu navigation. The system learns from user behavior, prioritizing frequently used settings for faster access. Visual feedback appears through subtle animations that reference analog processes. When adjusting exposure compensation, a virtual needle moves across a scale reminiscent of light meters from manual cameras. These visual metaphors create intuitive understanding without requiring technical knowledge, making the camera accessible to photographers at all experience levels. Image Quality & Creative Features The X half’s output demonstrates its design philosophy most clearly. Fujifilm incorporated 13 Film Simulation modes based on their 90-year color science heritage. Each simulation offers unique characteristics that influence how photographers approach different subjects and lighting conditions. The system goes further by incorporating three new creative filters inspired by film photography: Light Leak, which creates a slightly exposed look; Halation, a halo effect that appears around light sources; and Expired Film, which mimics the grainy look of older analog film. These elements come from an internal database of authentic film artifacts, applied without preview to reintroduce the element of surprise that made film photography exciting. This unpredictability represents a deliberate design choice that restores the anticipation often missing from digital photography. Optional date stamping mimics the iconic corner-markings found on 1990s film cameras, enhancing the nostalgic experience for users familiar with physical prints. The camera’s grain behavior connects to its advanced image processing engine, replicating organic and irregular patterns characteristic of traditional film. The vertical orientation influences composition in profound ways. By default, photographers naturally frame subjects differently when working in portrait format. This constraint encourages fresh perspectives on familiar subjects, breaking habitual compositional patterns that develop with horizontal framing. Color science receives special attention through custom calibration for vertical subjects. The color rendering has been optimized for skin tones, architecture, and vertical landscapes, with subtle adjustments to saturation and contrast that complement vertically framed subjects. Environmental Considerations Fujifilm designed the X half with environmental impact in mind. The camera’s simplified internal architecture reduces component count compared to similar-sized digital cameras, minimizing resource consumption during manufacturing while extending potential service life through mechanical simplicity. The fixed lens eliminates the environmental impact of multiple lens production and transportation, reducing materials usage and packaging waste associated with interchangeable lens systems. Most significantly, the X half’s design philosophy encourages users to value fewer, more meaningful images. This approach reduces the environmental impact of data storage and transfer while fostering a more sustainable relationship with photography itself. By emphasizing quality over quantity, the camera encourages a more mindful approach to image creation and consumption. My Thoughts for Now At $849.99 USD, the X half targets photography enthusiasts seeking something beyond conventional cameras. Fujifilm clearly understands this camera serves a specific market segment rather than competing directly with multi-purpose devices. The price reflects both unique design and premium materials while offering value beyond technical specifications. The camera’s pocketable size encourages daily carry, resulting in more frequent use than larger systems that often remain at home. This regular engagement creates more photographic opportunities, enhancing practical value. The fixed lens and simplified controls eliminate ongoing accessory costs while encouraging mastery of a single focal length. The X half represents a significant departure from conventional camera design by challenging horizontal orientation as the default. Its most profound impact lies in embracing constraints as creative catalysts. Early testing revealed that while professional photographers initially expressed frustration, those willing to adapt discovered these limitations fostered creativity rather than restricting it. “X half is special because it rekindles our love for the compact camera and blends it with the modern sensibilities that make it easy to make a part of our everyday lives,” explains Victor Ha, vice president of Electronic Imaging and Optical Devices Divisions at Fujifilm North America Corporation. The camera arrives as design trends increasingly embrace digital interpretations of analog experiences. From skeuomorphic interfaces to vinyl record resurgence, consumers seek tangible, imperfect experiences within our digital world. What makes the X half truly innovative lies in its intentional subtractions from photography. By removing RAW capture options, limiting post-processing flexibility, and challenging horizontal orientation, Fujifilm creates something paradoxically nostalgic yet forward-looking. The FUJIFILM X half compact digital camera will be available in late June 2025 at a Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price of $849.99 USD and $998.99 CAD.The post Fujifilm Reimagines Photography with X half Premium Compact Digital Camera first appeared on Yanko Design.

Minimalist color photography thrives on simplicity, clarity, and restraint, using limited color palettes and streamlined compositions to create powerful visual impact. This style strips away distractions, emphasizing the essential elements of the scene and allowing photographers to convey strong emotions and clear narratives effectively. Embracing Simplicity Minimalism isn’t about having fewer elements for the sake of simplicity alone; it’s about intentionality. Every aspect of your photograph—color, composition, and subject—should serve a clear purpose and contribute meaningfully to the image’s overall impact. Limited Colors: Restricting your palette to a few colors or shades enhances visual clarity and emotional resonance. Focused Subject: Clearly defined subjects with significant negative space help viewers immediately grasp the narrative or emotion you’re conveying. Choosing Colors for Emotional Impact In minimalist photography, your color choices are critical. Each hue carries emotional weight and meaning: Monochromatic Schemes: Utilizing shades of a single color can create elegant, unified, and tranquil images. Subtle Contrasts: Gentle contrasts in minimalist photos—such as muted pastels paired with soft neutrals—generate quiet, compelling visual interest. Bold Accents: Introducing a single vibrant color against an otherwise neutral background can create dramatic visual tension, guiding the viewer’s eye directly to your subject. Composition for Maximum Effect Achieving successful minimalist photography relies heavily on thoughtful composition: Negative Space: Extensive use of negative space emphasizes your subject, creating a serene yet compelling aesthetic. Rule of Thirds and Symmetry: Utilize basic compositional techniques like the rule of thirds or symmetry to structure your image effectively, reinforcing clarity and visual harmony. Minimal Details: Each detail included should significantly enhance your composition; extraneous elements dilute the minimalist impact. The Role of Lighting in Minimalism Lighting is essential to minimalist photography, significantly affecting mood and visual appeal: Soft Lighting: Diffuse, gentle lighting helps maintain visual simplicity, reducing harsh contrasts and promoting a tranquil mood. Directional Light: Controlled use of directional lighting can add subtle texture and depth, highlighting essential elements without introducing unnecessary complexity. Refining Your Minimalist Vision Minimalist photography challenges photographers to see beyond the surface, demanding careful planning and thoughtful execution. Cultivate the discipline to exclude unnecessary elements and focus solely on essential details. This approach allows the viewer to connect instantly with your message or emotion, leaving a lasting impression. Minimalist color photography demonstrates the profound power of simplicity. By embracing restraint, carefully choosing your colors, mastering composition, and thoughtfully utilizing lighting, you can create visually impactful photographs that deeply resonate with your audience. Explore minimalism in your photographic practice, and discover the strength and clarity of saying more with less. Extended reading: Transforming ordinary scenes with vibrant colors The post Less is More: The Power of Minimalist Color Photography appeared first on 500px.

Courtyard House without Second Floor | © Ken’ichi Suzuki Photo Studio In the dense urban fabric of Tokyo’s low-rise residential zones, the idea of a courtyard house often arrives burdened with contradictions. While courtyards promise tranquility, daylight, and spatial openness, they simultaneously risk exposure in neighborhoods where proximity to adjacent buildings is a constant reality. In Courtyard House without Second Floor, Takuro Yamamoto Architects responds to this tension not by enclosing the courtyard at ground level, as is typical in urban Japan, but by lifting it skyward and, in doing so, rethinking the basic assumptions of residential typology. Courtyard House without Second Floor Technical Information Architects1-11: Takuro Yamamoto Architects Location: Tokyo, Japan Area: 84.81 m2 | 912.87 Sq. Ft. Completion Year: 2023 Photographs: © Ken’ichi Suzuki Photo Studio By having a courtyard on the third floor where one does not need to worry about neighbors’ houses, and by making the living room that faces the courtyard the main living space, it is possible to propose a lifestyle of living with the sky. – Takuro Yamamoto Architects Courtyard House without Second Floor Photographs © Ken’ichi Suzuki Photo Studio © Ken’ichi Suzuki Photo Studio © Ken’ichi Suzuki Photo Studio © Ken’ichi Suzuki Photo Studio © Ken’ichi Suzuki Photo Studio © Ken’ichi Suzuki Photo Studio © Ken’ichi Suzuki Photo Studio © Ken’ichi Suzuki Photo Studio © Ken’ichi Suzuki Photo Studio © Ken’ichi Suzuki Photo Studio Rethinking the Urban Courtyard Typology In the dense urban fabric of Tokyo’s low-rise residential zones, the idea of a courtyard house often arrives burdened with contradictions. While courtyards promise tranquility, daylight, and spatial openness, they simultaneously risk exposure in neighborhoods where proximity to adjacent buildings is a constant reality. In Courtyard House without Second Floor, Takuro Yamamoto Architects responds to this tension not by enclosing the courtyard at ground level, as is typical in urban Japan, but by lifting it skyward and, in doing so, rethinking the basic assumptions of residential typology. Commissioned by a couple seeking privacy and serenity within a compact urban site, the house proposes a bold inversion of conventional planning. Rather than layering private and public functions vertically, the architects chose to eliminate the second floor entirely, allowing the first and third floors to operate in deliberate dialogue. The result is a residence that privileges visual and environmental connection with the sky while subtly redefining the relationship between floor height, program, and spatial character. Design Intent and Spatial Strategy: Living with the Sky At the core of the project lies a radical conceptual maneuver: displacing the courtyard from the ground to the third floor. This decision emerges from a critique of the traditional urban courtyard model. In this Tokyo neighborhood, where surrounding buildings are often taller and closely spaced, a ground-level courtyard would likely be overlooked, compromising its function as a private outdoor room. High surrounding walls could restore privacy but at the cost of daylight and spatial openness. By relocating the courtyard upward, above the line of sight of nearby houses, the architects enable a new kind of domestic experience centered on openness, air, and sky. The third floor becomes the primary living domain, composed of a light-filled living room that opens directly onto the rooftop courtyard. The courtyard, in turn, becomes not just a spatial device but a living boundary between interior and exterior, structured absence and atmospheric presence. This elevated void also informs the project’s volumetric logic. Since the clients required only a modest floor area, the architects chose to dispense with the intermediate second floor, enabling a clearer division of functions. Communal and spatially expansive activities are raised above, while intimate, enclosed functions occupy the ground level. This unusual strategy reorients how verticality is deployed not as a stacking of programs but as a spatial gradient calibrated to privacy, light, and openness. Materiality, Light, and Spatial Atmosphere Constructed using a rigid wooden frame structure, the house maintains a calm and tactile material palette, allowing spatial relationships and natural light to define its atmosphere. The first floor, often overlooked in vertically stratified dwellings, benefits from a double-height volume due to the absence of the second floor. This inversion creates unexpected generosity in typically constrained spaces, such as the two workrooms facing each other across a slender internal courtyard planted with a Japanese dogwood tree. Light becomes the central agent of spatial modulation. Tall windows on the first-floor drawing in daylight, softening the compactness of the lower level and offering fluctuating lighting conditions throughout the day. Meanwhile, the upper courtyard receives unobstructed sunlight, casting dynamic shadows and amplifying the architectural strategy of turning upward for openness. The spatial sequence thus becomes non-linear, entering into lower, quiet rooms whose expanded vertical dimensions lend them dignity before ascending to a third-floor realm that opens horizontally to the sky. Rather than a classical hierarchy of levels, the house presents a compositional field of contrasts between enclosure and exposure, compression and release, and ground and air. Courtyard House Urban Context Tokyo’s residential neighborhoods are defined not only by density but also by a highly codified regulatory environment. Within the constraints of a Type 1 restricted low-rise residential zone, the architects worked with a site area of 169.78 m², achieving a floor area ratio of 77.87% and a building coverage of just under 50%. These constraints typically lead to compact, stacked dwellings. Yet the Courtyard House without Second Floor resists this default model, proposing a typological deviation that extracts architectural generosity from regulatory discipline instead. Courtyard House without Second Floor Plans Floor Plan | © Takuro Yamamoto Architects Section | © Takuro Yamamoto Architects Elevation | © Takuro Yamamoto Architects Courtyard House without Second Floor Image Gallery About Takuro Yamamoto Architects Credits and Additional Notes Design Team: Takuro Yamamoto, Tomoko Yanagi Structural Design: NCN Corporation / Yuusuke Okamoto Construction: REMOL DESIGN / Hiroyuki Watanabe, Syuhei Watanabe Furniture: Tanaka Kogei / Toshiya Tanaka, Takeshi Minamizawa Structure: Wooden rigid frame Site Area: 169.78 m² Total Floor Area: 132.21 m² 1st Floor Area: 74.09 m² 3rd Floor Area: 58.12 m² Lot Percentage: 49.95% Floor Space Ratio: 77.87%