A Mibu house with a garden on its roof

This new family house in Mibu is really about keeping a backyard intact. Tato Architects designed it for a couple and their three children on the grounds of the family’s parental home, with an old barn already in place and cars still needing to pass through the site. The answer was to rotate the timber house to follow that path, then sink the main living floor about 500 millimetres into the ground so the roof could extend the garden over the top.

That move changes how the house feels from both inside and out. In the living room, the garden sits almost at eye level beyond broad glazing, while the low roof and surrounding earth make the space feel sheltered rather than buried. Upstairs, the plan becomes more compact, with smaller rooms linked by two staircases and a raised loft used as both desk and sleeping area. Tato describes these shifts in level as a way to keep family members visually connected, whether they are indoors or out in the garden.

The materials keep that link to the site going: charred cedar outside, lauan plywood and trowelled mortar floors within, and a grass-covered roof watered from the existing well. It is a private home, not somewhere to visit, but it is a thoughtful small-house study for anyone interested in how a building can give land back instead of simply taking it.

Our summary of a story from designboom, published 4 October 2026. Read the original

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