{"id":8467,"date":"2026-05-19T10:30:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T10:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/?p=8467"},"modified":"2026-05-22T15:16:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T15:16:53","slug":"ynas-uses-timber-framed-canopies-to-reconnect-japanese-home-with-the-outdoors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/ynas-uses-timber-framed-canopies-to-reconnect-japanese-home-with-the-outdoors\/","title":{"rendered":"YNAS uses timber-framed canopies to reconnect Japanese home with the outdoors"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"House<\/div>\n

Local architecture studio YNAS has renovated and extended a traditional timber home<\/a> in southern Japan<\/a>, opening up its interiors and improving its connection to the surroundings with corrugated-metal<\/a> canopies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Named House in Miyakonojo, the extension<\/a> was designed for a couple who, after raising their children and changing careers, decided to return to the wife’s ancestral home in Miyakonojo to live with her father.<\/p>\n

\"House
YNAS has renovated and extended a traditional timber home in southern Japan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Originally built in 1978, the single-storey timber dwelling was structurally sound but suffered from a cramped internal layout and underutilised external spaces, which led to it feeling disconnected from the landscape and neighbouring community.<\/p>\n

To address this, YNAS<\/a> looked to open up the home’s boundaries. The studio removed walls and hedges, deepened the existing engawa \u2013 or verandahs \u2013 with steel and timber canopies and created an outdoor kitchen space with views of the mountainous skyline.<\/p>\n

\"New
An outdoor kitchen space was added to the home<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“A major design directive was how to handle the varying distances between the family and the community,” the studio’s founder and principal architect, Yuko Numata, told Dezeen.<\/p>\n

“Rather than simply closing off the home to protect privacy, I took the paradoxical approach of demonstrating through design that no physical borders were being created,” she continued.<\/p>\n

“Neighbours can catch distant glimpses of the family enjoying the outdoor kitchen or see smoke rising from the stove and the wood-fired bath. The house once again becomes a part of the landscape through the ‘signs of life’ it emits.”<\/p>\n

\"Interior
The studio opened up the home’s cramped internal layout<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The original home had a traditional layout with rooms partitioned by sliding screens sitting off a dark, L-shaped corridor that separated the living area from the kitchen, dining room, and bedroom.<\/p>\n

YNAS eliminated this corridor and the partition walls entirely, creating a unified living, dining and kitchen space, with zones demarcated by the structure’s original timber columns and varied floor finishes.<\/p>\n

\"Living
Partitions between the living, dining and kitchen spaces were removed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New timber-framed canopies topped with corrugated metal shelter engawa spaces alongside the entrance, dining, and living areas to the south and the kitchen to the north.<\/p>\n

These canopies extend House in Miyakonojo’s unusually shallow eaves to provide vital shade, allowing the previously under-utilised spaces around its perimeter to become an extension of the interiors.<\/p>\n