Mur House by Apollo Architects & Associates in Yokohama City, Kanagawa is the perfect combination of pure lines and stripped-back Japanese simplicity. Conceived to house the client’s expansive art collection, the Mur House acts as an innocent bystander to the human animation anticipated unfolding within.

Typical of Japanese residences, it is clear the architectural collaborative intended, through glazing, to frame the external world. From within, this house looks out, from a place of calm white-ness out onto the urban stage that surrounds. After entering this house, a long approach awaits and functions as a switch of in and out, whereby connecting spaces act as rooms, connecting the various destinations. The journey between these spaces is a continuation of this calm.

At just over 80sqm and completed in 2011, this timber structure dwelling creates a distinctly bold silhouette. The combination of operable and fixed façade elements creates hubs of privacy, mixed with subtle porthole vistas from the outside world. The contrast between these elements creates, I think, a perfect haven in amongst high-densification.