In downtown Hiroshima, amidst the hum of cars, trams and looming buildings, Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP Architects have crafted a dwelling where light itself becomes architecture. The Optical Glass House is more than a residence: it reframes the city, turning its restless motion into a serene cinematic backdrop.
Its defining element is a façade of 6,000 pure-glass blocks — at once shield and lens. Cars and trams dissolve into hazy silhouettes, their movements muted and reimagined. Rather than shutting out the street, the façade transforms it into a silent performance.
Inside, light and nature stage their own choreography. Morning sun refracts through the glass, scattering shifting patterns. Rain striking a skylight inscribes ripples across the entrance floor. Garden trees cast flickering shadows through the living room, while a whisper-thin metal curtain shimmers like sculpture in the wind.
Behind this delicacy lies rigour. Each block, cast from borosilicate glass, demanded slow cooling and exact precision. The immense 8.6-metre façade, impossible to support with glass alone, was threaded on stainless steel bolts and reinforced with hidden flat bars, creating a lattice both strong and ethereal.
The result resembles a vertical waterfall: scattering light, muffling sound, and infusing air with calm. Within, residents experience the city anew — not excluded from it, but enveloped in a softened, shifting vision of seasons, weather, and urban rhythm.
Project & images: https://www.nakam.info/en/works/optical-glass-house/
Article by: Lily Wong
