Kazuyo Sejima, co-founder of the acclaimed architecture studio SANAA, is opening three iconic Tokyo homes to the public through the Tokyo House Tour, an initiative designed to showcase striking post-war residential buildings. The tour aims to demonstrate "how cities and buildings grow together" while preserving Tokyo's rich architectural heritage from the decades following World War II.
Scheduled to take place during this year's Art Week Tokyo (AWT), the tour will run for two days from November 7-8. Sejima organized the event with the specific goal of helping people discover the city's remarkable collection of small houses built for ordinary residents after the war. "Tokyo is home to many valuable small houses built after the war for ordinary people," Sejima explained. "In hopes of preserving these houses as part of the city's cultural heritage, the idea was brought to AWT last year and grew into this project."
The Tokyo House Tour features three exceptional properties, beginning with the striking six-story Tower House designed by architect Takamitsu Azuma in 1966. This concrete building showcases a bold geometric design specifically created to fit a narrow urban plot in central Tokyo. The sculptural home is constructed entirely of concrete both inside and out, featuring a built-in concrete staircase around which all rooms are arranged, beautifully contrasted with warm wooden details throughout the interior.
The tour also ventures into the more suburban Hanakoganei and Koganei areas, where Sejima notes that "nature still remains." Here, visitors can explore two distinctive houses designed by renowned architect Toyo Ito. The first is the playful Hanakoganei House from 1979, which features an unusual combination of one arched roof and one gabled roof, accented with eye-catching turquoise details. The second property is the House in Koganei, built in 1983, located in an area of Tokyo known for its verdant natural surroundings.
All three properties remain private residences, making the tour particularly special. "With the generous cooperation of the owners, a house designed by Takamitsu Azuma in 1966 and two houses designed by Toyo Ito in 1979 and 1983 were made accessible for this tour," Sejima noted. She emphasized her hope to "show how cities and buildings grow together to form culture."
Beyond cultural appreciation, Sejima's initiative serves a crucial preservation purpose. This smaller building typology was once common in Tokyo, where residents had to build upward and often on unusual or oddly-shaped sites due to space constraints. However, many of these older architectural gems are now at risk of being lost to development and neglect. "In Japan, for various reasons including the aging population, it's becoming harder for individuals to maintain their own buildings," Sejima explained. "This makes the preservation and passing on of such houses a real challenge."
The architect envisions the tour as a catalyst for broader preservation efforts. "By giving these small houses new uses, we hope they can be preserved as part of Tokyo's and Japan's heritage, and protected together by everyone," she continued. Sejima hopes the experience will help visitors appreciate how these homes successfully blend practical solutions with sculptural, creative designs that make them stand out in Tokyo's urban landscape.
The tour is designed to appeal to both architecture professionals and general visitors interested in Tokyo's built environment. "I hope architects, including visitors of all kinds, can feel that these houses and the Tokyo streets around them are both practical and artistic in their own way," Sejima concluded. The initiative represents a unique opportunity to experience privately-owned architectural treasures that are typically inaccessible to the public, while supporting efforts to preserve Tokyo's distinctive post-war residential architecture for future generations.
