Suspended elements and shifting light transform a cramped Tokyo apartment into a spacious retreat. The Swaying Room project, located in the Ogikubo neighborhood, is a 40-square-meter ground-floor apartment originally built from two enclosed rooms. Architect Shinji Sonoda designed the space for a daughter returning to care for her ageing parents, who live in the apartment above.
She gained full control over the ground floor to reimagine it as her own private sanctuary. Sonoda removed the walls between the two closed-off rooms at the house’s end, opening the area to light from three sides and the Japanese-style garden beyond. This structural change created a foundation for a home built around suspension, shapes, and shifting light.
Reimagining the Ground Floor
The project relies heavily on wire systems from Arakawa Giken Kogyo, a company founded by the client’s parents. The family’s wire systems feature prominently throughout the apartment, supporting shelves, partitions, and cabinetry without anchoring them to the walls. This approach keeps the visual weight low and allows for adjustments based on daily use.
A kitchen cupboard is held up in part by a timber offcut taken from a tree once growing on the property. This detail serves as a quiet nod to the property’s past, sitting warmly alongside the hard lines of the wire system. The wire’s adjustable nature also allows for flexibility depending on use, balancing wire with softer materials.
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The kitchen itself is a compact stainless steel unit tucked quietly into one of the apartment’s corners. Simple, practical, and easy to maintain, the stainless steel was also chosen for its reflective quality. Triangular stainless steel panels wrap the kitchen’s surrounding walls, adding to the reflective quality and the apartment’s wider design language.
A large circular suspended shelf hangs above the stainless steel bench. Its curves act as a deliberate counterpoint to the surrounding angular geometry. Hung with the same wire system throughout the home, the shelf sits weightlessly while integrated lighting underneath casts a glow across the stainless steel surfaces below. It functions as storage, ambient lighting, and a warm element within the hard-edged kitchen.
Shoji screens act as both subtle partitions and design details throughout the space. In the entrance, a custom shoji screen door marks the transition from the family home into the private space beyond, allowing light to filter through the translucent paper. A second shoji screen suspended by wires floats between the living and sleeping area, neatly concealing the bed from view without closing off the space entirely.
Zoning Without Walls
Behind the shoji partition and up a single step is the bedroom. This creates a new zone within the apartment without the need for a wall or door. The sleeping side of the partition is clad in deep blue tiles, deepening the sense of calm and enclosure.
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The bedroom is finished in carpet with rounded edges, contrasting with the angular lines found elsewhere. For storage, a full-length wardrobe spans the wall, with upper shelves suspended once more from the ceiling by wire. Curtains conceal the clothes within, illuminated by indirect lighting that casts a diffused glow, drawing the bedroom inward to rest at the end of the day.
Given the structural constraints of Tokyo real estate and the specific needs of a multi-generational household, this reliance on suspension and movable partitions represents a pragmatic solution to spatial scarcity. It creates a distinct separation between public and private activities that cannot be achieved through fixed architecture alone.
Instead of relying on fixed elements or heavy partitions, Swaying Room hangs its openness, light, and flexibility on suspended joinery, translucent screens, and subtle level changes to create a new, yet familiar home within a home. See more images by Shinya Kigure and see how light, geometry, and suspended elements come together throughout the apartment.
