When a Yokohama couple asked architect Takeshi Hosaka to design a home “in which we feel as if we are outdoors”, Hosaka took a triangular lot and used the geometry to trap a garden inside each room.

All of Hosaka’s designs play with the idea of homes as separate from nature: his “Inside Out” leaves everything open for a couple and their 2 cats; and his own “Love House” dances with the indoor tree that dwarfs the tiny space. His “Garden House”, designed for a Tokyo advertising executive seeking a home as refuge, is more of a membrane than a home; it’s highly porous with the garden and nearly impermeable to the street.

The owner explains a typical day/week shuffling between his garden home and Tokyo’s Aoyama District for work. “I wake up and brush my teeth while looking at the garden, then I take my long commute into Tokyo and all day long, I’m busy, busy, busy. When I finally get home, all I do is sleep and I have to go back to work the next day. On the weekend I like relaxing here and enjoying the natural beauty of the garden.”