House in Nekogahora is a minimalist house located in Nagoya, Japan, designed by Airhouse. The project is two existing “machiya” (traditional Japanese wooden tradesmen’s houses) that were adjacently built 40 years ago are connected and converted into a single structure containing a residence and a shop. In response to the client’s request to design a large dining / kitchen space to host social gatherings, the architects have designed the entire entrance area as the dining / kitchen space. Space for living is located on the second floor to secure privacy while the lower and upper floors are not fully separated but connected by a void space to achieve a spacious loft-like open space. The existing floor-to-ceiling partition walls are basically removed to let in light from both the east and west sides to achieve a bright living space in a Japanese-style house which is supposed to have relatively dark rooms in typical configurations. By stripping the structure to reveal the skeleton, they intend to maximize the spatial efficiency and also added structural reinforcement based on the necessary calculations.