Bookshelves add extra utility to the undulating staircase in Tokyo's 921-square-foot Coil house. The space was designed by architect Akihisa Hirata for Sakura and Ryo Sugiura, a young couple with two children.
A sculptural terrarium brings the landscape indoors. This two-tier wooden box planter is but one of many designs by Plant-in City, a cooperative of artists and technologists who create a series of intricate, micro-ecosystems of “green architecture.”
Cox initially conceived the deck as a conventional surface for relaxing and entertaining. With the bench, however, he seized an opportunity to create something both functional and visually arresting. “You go down these paths and, as the design mutates, other ideas attach themselves and make it stronger and more interesting,” he says.
An artist and an architect built their home, studios, and an exhibition space inside a lushly landscaped Antwerp warehouse.