Tokyo home Le49Ⅱ brings together drama, domestic luxury and hybrid working habits
Le49Ⅱ by Japanese architects Apollo is a Tokyo home for a young family with hybrid working habits

This Tokyo home for a young family occupies a privileged corner plot within a serene residential neighbourhood in the heart of Tokyo. Its architects, locally based Japanese architecture studio Apollo, founded by Satoshi Kurosaki, aimed for the design – titled Le49Ⅱ – to provide both a luxurious dwelling and a generous and functional home working base for its owners.
Le49Ⅱ by Apollo: a contemporary Tokyo home
The project offers little clue of its multitasking goings on from the street, hidden behind its minimalist architecture and geometric façade made of charcoal grey Galvalume steel walls, grey natural-granite retaining walls, and resin wood louvres. A large opening on the top floor, alongside its terrace, offers a hint of the life inside the home's walls.
The workspaces are tucked away on the lower ground floor. The ground level contains the entrance, as well as the bedrooms and bathrooms. Meanwhile, the upper floor's piano nobile is reserved for the home's expansive living spaces, dramatically placed under an exposed pitched roof and tall ceilings (although the kitchen and dining area feature a lower internal height to create a cosier feeling and a welcome sense of compression).
'Le49 II provides an ideal space for allowing each family member to express their individuality while fostering a sense of family unity. The home gives true expression to the concept of compact luxury,' the architects write.
Apollo's award-winning portfolio includes a wealth of residences, such as Timeless, also in Tokyo, as well as Grigio, which was nominated for the Wallpaper* Design Award's Best Private House in 2015.
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
Fluid workspaces: is the era of prescriptive office design over?
We discuss evolving workspaces and track the shape-shifting interiors of the 21st century. If options are what we’re after in office design, it looks like we’ve got them
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
This collection of slow furniture is a powerful ode to time
A serene exhibition of David Dolcini's 'Time-made' collection has fast-tracked its place into our hearts and homes
By Ifeoluwa Adedeji Published
-
Is the Pragma P1 the most sustainable watch yet?
Geneva-based brand Pragma combines industrial design with real sustainable credentials
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Tour the brutalist Ginza Sony Park, Tokyo's newest urban hub
Ginza Sony Park opens in all its brutalist glory, the tech giant’s new building that is designed to embrace the public, offering exhibitions and freely accessible space
By Jens H Jensen Published
-
A first look at Expo 2025 Osaka's experimental architecture
Expo 2025 Osaka prepares to throw open its doors in April; we preview the world festival, its developments and highlights
By Danielle Demetriou Published
-
Ten contemporary homes that are pushing the boundaries of architecture
A new book detailing 59 visually intriguing and technologically impressive contemporary houses shines a light on how architecture is evolving
By Anna Solomon Published
-
And the RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2025 goes to... SANAA!
The RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2025 winner is announced – Japanese studio SANAA scoops the prestigious architecture industry accolade
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Architect Sou Fujimoto explains how the ‘idea of the forest’ is central to everything
Sou Fujimoto has been masterminding the upcoming Expo 2025 Osaka for the past five years, as the site’s design producer. To mark the 2025 Wallpaper* Design Awards, the Japanese architect talks to us about 2024, the year ahead, and materiality, nature, diversity and technological advances
By Sou Fujimoto Published
-
Tadao Ando: the self-taught contemporary architecture master who 'converts feelings into physical form’
Tadao Ando is a self-taught architect who rose to become one of contemporary architecture's biggest stars. Here, we explore the Japanese master's origins, journey and finest works
By Edwin Heathcote Published
-
The Kumagaya House in Saitama is a modest family home subdivided by a soaring interior
This Kumagaya House is a domestic puzzle box taking the art of the Japanese house to another level as it intersects a minimal interior with exterior spaces, balconies and walkways
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Shigeru Ban wins 2024 Praemium Imperiale Architecture Award
The 2024 Praemium Imperiale Architecture Award goes to Japanese architect Shigeru Ban
By Ellie Stathaki Published