The house that looks like it’s MELTING: Abode in Tokyo has a ‘warped’ front wall

At first glance, it looks like it’s melting.

A Japanese architecture firm has designed an ultra-imaginative house in Tokyo with a radically slanted front wall as its defining feature. 

This ‘warped’ wall sets out to appear as ‘earth rising dynamically from the ground’, a statement reveals.

A tunnel through the sweeping wall leads visitors to the front door, inviting them to ‘step out from their ordinary and into the extraordinary’.

The building was designed for an up-and-coming manga artist – a style of graphic novel – her partner, and their two pet owls.

A Japanese architecture firm has designed an ultra-imaginative house in Tokyo with a radically slanted front wall as its defining feature 

Architecture firm Tan Yamanouchi & AWGL says that the dwelling, which has a traditional Japanese wooden framework, was envisioned as ‘a building that floats a few centimetres above our daily lives’.

The unconventional shape of the house works in harmony with the long and narrow plot of land on which it was built – it measures 16ft (4.9m) wide and 48ft (14.7m) deep.

According to the architects, the artist who commissioned the split-level design – which features two storeys at the front and three storeys at the rear – made three requests ahead of the construction. 

Firstly, she asked that the house should also serve as her studio, functioning as a space for creative conceptualization, meetings and giving interviews with the media.

Secondly, she requested that the house should be compact and should not bring in too much natural light.

Lastly and ‘most importantly’, the artist said she required a home that inspired creativity.  

Pictures show that the abode is furnished in a palette of pebble-grey stone, warm-toned woods and teal paintwork. 

A tunnel leads visitors to the front door, inviting them to ‘step out from their ordinary and into the extraordinary’

The ‘warped’ wall sets out to appear as ‘earth rising dynamically from the ground’ 

Architecture firm Tan Yamanouchi & AWGL – which is behind the project – says that the project was envisioned as ‘a building that floats a few centimetres above our daily lives’ 

The building was designed for an up-and-coming manga artist, her partner, and their two pet owls

A wooden staircase leads through the property, twisting past fitted wooden bookshelves. 

It’s not the only innovative design that the architecture studio’s founder has dreamt up. Tan Yamanouchi is also behind Tokyo’s award-winning Manga Art Hotel, a ‘manga-themed conceptual capsule hotel’ where guests can peruse through 5,000 manga publications. 

In an unusual twist, guests are invited to enjoy a ‘sleepless’ night at the hotel, spending the early hours leafing through manga instead of catching up on sleep. 

The building has been crafted with a traditional Japanese wooden framework

The abode is furnished in a palette of pebble-gray stone and warm-toned woods. Pictured right is an angular room in the property with teal paintwork