White Cave House | © Ken’ichi Suzuki Photo Studio The conventional courtyard house confronts a climatic paradox in Kanazawa, Japan, where winter snow accumulates in deep, persistent layers. Traditionally associated with sunlit, arid environments, heavy snowfall can fundamentally challenge the courtyard typology. In response to these conditions, Takuro Yamamoto Architects devised White Cave House (2013), a residence that critiques, reshapes, and revalidates the courtyard model for a snowy suburban context. White Cave House Technical Information Architects1-8: Takuro Yamamoto Architects Location: Kanazawa, Japan Area: 172.33 m2 | 1,855 Sq. Ft. Project Year: 2011 – 2013 Photographs: © Ken’ichi Suzuki Photo Studio We proposed to connect these external spaces one another into a large single tube, or Cave, and have each part serve multiple purposes in order to make up for the space limitations. – Takuro Yamamoto Architects White Cave House Photographs Facade | © 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 © Ken’ichi Suzuki Photo Studio White Cave House: Adapting Typology to Climate This single-family house, located on a 493.88 m² site, is not merely a formal exercise in white minimalism but an attempt to resolve spatial contradictions through architectural strategy. Rather than prioritizing interior space at the expense of outdoor functions or vice versa, the architects introduce a third condition: the Cave. This spatial system, composed of a continuous, cranked void, acts as a connective and generative device that rethinks how program, privacy, and climate interact. The initial brief called for a home with minimal expression and multiple exterior spaces, including a roofed garage, a covered entrance, a sky-facing terrace, and a courtyard. However, in Kanazawa, such outdoor amenities often become non-functional in winter. Snow not only conceals the courtyard but complicates access to the home. To navigate this contradiction, the design reframes the courtyard as part of a larger architectural system. The solution was not to compartmentalize or reduce but to integrate. By spatially linking the outdoor elements into a continuous, kinked tube, what the architects describe as a White Cave, each programmatic element retains autonomy while benefiting from collective spatial logic. This bent and folded cave balances visibility and opacity, allowing light and air to circulate while preserving internal privacy. The project becomes an architectural diagram in three dimensions, an exercise in folding a linear void into a coherent living framework that works both in summer and under heavy snow. Spatial Logic and Visual Continuity Unlike most courtyard homes, where the courtyard is the central void around which functions are organized, White Cave House positions the void itself as a pathway. This void is not residual but essential: it is the architecture. The kinked configuration of the Cave mediates privacy by obstructing direct lines of sight from the street. Its geometry offers framed, oblique views rather than open panoramas. This spatial logic introduces a sense of depth and progression, transforming what could have been leftover outdoor space into a dynamic corridor of light and shadow. Internally, rooms are organized to face this void, not for outward views but for carefully curated inward experiences. In a sense, the architecture turns itself inside out. The Cave becomes both a facade and an interior, challenging conventional spatial hierarchies. Materiality and Phenomenological Depth Materially, the house is defined by its white monochrome in form and surface treatment. Thick, load-bearing walls, painted in matte white, produce a monolithic impression, emphasizing the house’s sculptural quality. The continuous whiteness allows subtle changes in light and texture, seasonal, daily, and momentary, to become the focus of visual experience. Perhaps most striking is the use of water as a spatial modifier. A thin basin integrated into the terrace captures shallow pools of water, transforming a flat surface into a reflective void. As sky and sunlight dance across its surface, the basin becomes a mirror of atmospheric conditions. Here, the Cave no longer just carves through solid material; it also holds and reflects the ephemeral. This material clarity extends into structural decisions. The wooden frame is not articulated expressively but concealed to reinforce the building’s mass-like presence. The result is a space that feels not constructed but excavated. White Cave House Plans Floor Plan | © Takuro Yamamoto Architects Sections | © Takuro Yamamoto Architects Elevations | © Takuro Yamamoto Architects White Cave House Image Gallery About Takuro Yamamoto Architects Takuro Yamamoto Architects is a Tokyo-based architectural practice founded in 2005 by Takuro Yamamoto. The firm is renowned for its minimalist residential designs that thoughtfully integrate light, voids, and spatial continuity. Their work often explores the interplay between interior and exterior spaces, emphasizing privacy and openness. Notable projects include the White Cave House and the Little House with a Big Terrace, both exemplifying the firm’s commitment to creating timeless architecture that responds to its environment. Credits and Additional Notes Structure: Wood Design Period: Feb 2011 – Sept 2012 Construction Period: Oct 2012 – June 2013 Structural Engineer: Yamada Noriaki Structural Design Office Construction: Ninomiya-Kensetsu Client: Married couple + child Site Area: 493.88 m² Building Area: 132.68 m²

Casa De Blas | © Hisao Suzuki Set on a hillside in Sevilla la Nueva, a town southwest of Madrid, Casa De Blas is a distilled expression of the architectural dialectic between weight and lightness, earth and sky. Designed in 2000 by Spanish architect Alberto Campo Baeza, the house is both an act of landscape intervention and a metaphysical construct, a spatial meditation on essential form and material logic. Casa De Blas Technical Information Architects1-3: Alberto Campo Baeza Location: Sevilla la Nueva, Madrid, Spain Area: 250 m2 | 2,690 Sq. Ft. Project Year: 2000 Photographs: © Hisao Suzuki This house aims to be a literal translation of the idea of the tectonic box upon the stereotomic box. Like a distillation of the most essential in architecture. Once again, more with less. – Alberto Campo Baeza Casa De Blas Photographs © Hisao Suzuki © Hisao Suzuki © Hisao Suzuki © Hisao Suzuki © Hisao Suzuki © Hisao Suzuki The Architecture of Duality: Ground and Sky Campo Baeza’s work consistently revolves around a search for architectural clarity. In Casa De Blas, this clarity manifests as two boxes: a grounded concrete volume that holds the domestic program and a glass pavilion above that elevates the act of looking. The house is not merely built on the landscape; it is in dialogue with it. The conceptual strategy of Casa De Blas is rooted in a tectonic-syntactic opposition between the stereotomic base and the tectonic roof. The lower portion consists of a robust concrete platform embedded in the earth like a carved podium. This base supports a lighter glass structure above, where steel elements define the enclosure with minimal mass. The house engages the site with careful restraint. Rather than dominate the hilltop, it accepts the slope and turns its attention to the northern view of the Sierra de Guadarrama. This orientation informs light and shadow’s spatial organization and phenomenological qualities. Inside the concrete base, the architecture follows a precise logic. A service band is located toward the rear, while primary living spaces occupy the front, facing the landscape. Square window openings, deeply set into the thick walls, frame views with the intentionality of a camera obscura. These apertures do not merely let in light; they shape perception, creating a sense of distance and inwardness. The Pavilion as Apparatus for Contemplation Above this grounded core, the transparent upper volume serves as a lookout. Reached from the interior by ascending stairs, the glass box sits lightly on the podium, offering a counterpoint to the cave-like enclosure below. There is no visible carpentry, just frameless glazing and a white steel canopy, which shades the upper level while preserving its airy, open quality. The north-facing glass stretches toward the edge, embracing the panoramic view. On the southern side, the volume recedes to create a shaded void, regulating solar gain. This sectional asymmetry allows the architecture to perform environmentally without compromising its compositional purity. Campo Baeza describes the house as a literal translation of the idea of a tectonic box upon a stereotomic box. The reference is not metaphorical but structural and spatial. The upper pavilion is not a symbol of transparency but a mechanism for perception. In this way, the house operates as a philosophical instrument as much as a dwelling. Casa De Blas Proportion and Compositional Rigour The power of the project lies in the spatial sequence from the heavy to the light, from the shaded to the luminous. The contrast between these two atmospheres creates a duality of experience: shelter and openness, introspection and projection. The structural order contributes to this sense of serenity. Steel supports are arranged in double symmetry, reinforcing the composition’s static quality. Nothing feels arbitrary. Every gesture is reduced to its essential nature. The palette is limited to concrete, glass, and steel, yet the result is rich in meaning. The interior is equally restrained, avoiding superfluous detailing. It is architecture as a frame, a backdrop for landscape and thought. Campo Baeza’s work here touches the territory of the poetic, not through expressionism but through control and abstraction. Casa De Blas Plans Concept | © Alberto Campo Baeza North Elevation | © Alberto Campo Baeza East Elevation | © Alberto Campo Baeza Upper Level | © Alberto Campo Baeza Floor Plan | © Alberto Campo Baeza Section | © Alberto Campo Baeza Casa De Blas Image Gallery About Alberto Campo Baeza Alberto Campo Baeza is a Spanish architect born in 1946 in Valladolid. Renowned for his minimalist and essentialist approach, he emphasizes the interplay of light, gravity, and proportion in his designs. His notable works include the Casa Turégano, Casa de Blas, and the Caja de Granada headquarters. Campo Baeza was a full-time design professor at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM) from 1986 until his retirement in 2017. He has received numerous accolades throughout his career, such as the RIBA International Fellowship and the Heinrich Tessenow Gold Medal, recognizing his contributions to contemporary architecture. Credits and Additional Notes Design Team: Alberto Campo Baeza, Alfonso González Gamo Structural Engineer: Julio Martínez Calzón, MC-2 Collaborators: Teresa Campos