This house and studio, designed fur an artist, is on a small hill overlooking western Kobe and the Inland Sea of Japan. A rectilinear volume with an 8 x 14 metre plan, positioned north-south, forms the core. The site is significantly lower in elevation than the front road - a factor that has influenced the design of the building, which is entered by bridge at the second, or middle, level. With plants below the bridge, the occupants enter the house amid greenery. The studio and master bedroom occupy the ground floor, with the living room and dining room on the middle level. These rooms interconnect with the external spaces a court and a terrace - provided on both levels. On the top level, two rooms face each other across an open terrace, one of them capped by an observatory. A spiral staircase leads to the observatory from the middle level. As vertical spaces, the spiral staircase and the external triple-volume court introduce fluidity into the building.