The amazing three-bedroom house in Shiga, Japan, is the brainchild of Japanese architect Kouichi Kimura.  Located between the owner’s concrete factory and a highway, its walls reduce noise level inside and have few windows, providing fortress-level of insulation from the chaos outside. 

The temple-like interiors counterbalance concrete’s conventionally hard appearance, making it appear calm and soothing. “The concrete is sculpted by light and shadow,” says the architect, Kimura.

The structure, designed as a self-contained space that promotes serenity and silence, is set in a field and adjacent to a traditional Japanese house where the owner’s parents reside.

Furnishing, comprising of grey and black seating and tabletops,  is kept minimal and complements an open plan layout. “I conceived the house as a sequence of spaces, which are unrolled along an axis, generating comfortable tranquility and giving exquisite aesthetics to daily life.”