Articles by Miwa Negoro

Zenhouse is a residential project designed as a vacation home in Palakkad, Kerala. The project is not just a house; it’s a space designed to function as a sanctuary. The concept is to create an idyllic, peaceful spaces that aim for a state of enlightenment through thoughtful design. This is achieved through a minimalist design philosophy that eliminates visual clutter, reduces stress, and fosters a sense of mental clarity.

The architecture and construction sector currently accounts for the highest carbon emissions among all global industries. Architecture, which has evolved alongside humanity for over 10,000 years, entered the 20th century prioritizing efficiency and economy above all else, adopting concrete and steel as its near-exclusive materials. This pursuit of industrial optimization, while enabling rapid development, also detached architecture from its ecological roots and intensified the environmental burden of the built environment.

This house is named the 10º house because the axis of the facade is tilted 10 degrees to the east. This project is a renovation of an old house. It is a striking example of contemporary tropical architecture, merging robust material expression with a refined spatial composition. The house exhibits a monolithic exterior characterized by board-formed concrete façades that evoke a raw yet deliberate aesthetic. The texture of the concrete panels—retaining the imprint of the wooden formwork—imbues the structure with a tactile quality, grounding it in material honesty and craftsmanship. The interplay between solid and void is orchestrated through precisely placed apertures and deep recesses, allowing controlled daylight to filter through while maintaining privacy from the street.

Tututat Shade Canopy is a compact architectural addition for a Reggio-inspired preschool in Tamwe, Yangon. Conceived while our team was concurrently delivering post-earthquake housing in Mandalay. The canopy is conceived as an experimental exploration, using bamboo not for repetition or prefabrication but as a crafted, site-specific gesture that transforms the façade into an inhabitable extension.

In his Sailing Castle series, artist Cheng Tsung FENG reimagines the appearance of cities as if they were fleets of ships gathered at sea. Through large-scale installation art, he captures the silhouettes of surrounding buildings and transforms them into poetic impressions that weave together time, space, and memory.

P Home is a mixed-use architecture and interior design project in Bangkok that combines rental offices, a private office, and a residence on a compact 400 sqm plot. The client’s brief was straightforward: ground-level parking with separate entrances for offices and the home; offices on the second floor and mezzanine; and residential spaces on the third floor and upper mezzanine. The residence includes a music rehearsal room and fitness area, without additional specialized functions.

Villa Familia is a tropical biophilic getaway in a gated Parsi neighborhood in Lonavala, India. The family’s brief was to create a generational home nurturing togetherness, balancing intimacy with openness. The home has a dual personality, externally a modern architectural figurine punctuated with greens, while internally adorned with ancestral Parsi heirlooms. The house seeks a dialogue between landscape and built form, wherein the verandahs and balconies become pivotal transient spaces in the tropics. Unlike a monolith, the home unfolds as three distinct masses, woven by delicate passages. These passages are not merely corridors but breathing voids, bringing in light and air, framing picture-perfect views of immediate greens.

In many parts of the world, remoteness is not only defined by distance. It may describe a mountain settlement far from infrastructure or an urban and suburban neighborhood on the margins of visibility and opportunity. Across these diverse contexts, the library has been one of the most vital typologies—a space where architecture embodies the modes of accessibility, inclusivity, and community care.

Balkash is a small rural village of approximately 200 families located in the northern city limits of Surat. The village settlement originates around a lake, with two linear streets lined by rows of traditional pitched-roof tropical houses leading to the surrounding farmlands. Proximity to the sea and a high groundwater table allow for the cultivation of crops such as sugarcane, paddy, and coconut plantations. The people here lead an austere life with simplistic ideals and an affinity to nature.