Lulla House, a three-storey beachfront residence in Kamakura designed by Tokyo architecture studio I IN, merges Japanese craft, minimalism, and panoramic views of both Sagami Bay and Mount Fuji. Sited directly on the sand with a sand-coloured plaster facade and rope-strung balustrades, the project functions as a private home and showroom for fashion and lifestyle designer Azusa Yamatoโs brand Lulla, which retails furniture designed for the house alongside homeware and objects for daily life.
Founded in 2018 by partners Yohei Terui and Hiromu Yuyama, I IN developed its portfolio through high-spec commercial interiors including the Japanese headquarters of Cartier, Tiffanyโs Tokyo office, Blue Bottle cafรฉ, and a Pokรฉmon Centre. Lulla House marks a departure into residential work. Yamato approached I IN after seeing previous projects. The design process prioritised character over typology. โThey asked for something relaxed and personal, but also expressive and memorable. Like stepping into a world with its own character,โ says Yuyama who led the project. โOur first conversations focused more on lifestyle than architecture, how the family wanted to live, work, host people. The spatial concept developed naturally from there.โ
The building is organised across three floors, each with a distinct identity. The ground floor, a palimpsest from the buildingโs previous incarnation as a windsurfing school, still houses boards. The second floor opens dramatically to the bay: an uninterrupted living and dining space connects to a terrace via a sliding titanium volume that functions as both wall and entrance. When closed, it punctuates the rhythm of the sea-facing elevation; open, it dissolves the boundary between inside and out entirely. A newly installed spiral staircase in white plaster set against warm brushed timber anchors all three floors at the buildingโs centre, drawing the eye upward through the full height of the house. โWe treated the relationship between tiles and grout in the bathroom like fabric and thread,โ says Yuyama. Kitchen and closet doors are rattan โ light, woven, and breathable. Custom bathroom tiles made from sand sourced in Japan, in a dusty pink that is Yamatoโs signature colour, are grouted in acid yellow โ the houseโs most exuberantly fashionable gesture, simultaneously playful and precise. The exterior plaster was chosen to echo the colour of beach sand, so that the house feels as though it had simply risen from the sand.
The third floor closes around the stair intimately: an open wardrobe at the buildingโs core, a bathroom occupying nearly half the floor plan, a bathtub oriented directly to Sagami Bay and Mount Fuji. The spatial sequence prioritises quiet, light, and views, reinforcing the projectโs core values of gentleness, grace, and inner strength. Yamato calls the living room her favourite spot, where the ocean fills the full width of the west-facing windows and light moves across the water in a way that makes time feel slower. โSimply being here brings me back into balance,โ she says, adding that Lulla House is โa place where I can quietly feel my core values of gentleness, grace, and inner strengthโ.
Image Courtesy: Tomooki Kengaku, Wallpaper
