SHADOW PLAY

With the help of architect Kazuyo Sejima, a young couple sets up house in a century-old Kyoto machiya

- HANNAH MARTIN

A taxi can only get you so close to this traditional machiya, tucked at the end of a T-intersection on a pedestrian-only street in Kyoto's Nishijin neighborhood. But approaching the residence on foot, on a cold evening in early January, the place works its magic before you're even in the door. It radiates a warm glow, the slatted wood façade revealing a passing glimpse of its residents inside. They're preparing dinner.

“We're trying to make machiya livable in the modern era,” muses Sam Brustad, a communications consultant from New Zealand who moved to Japan more than a decade ago. He's just pulled a roast chicken, piping hot, out of his Miele oven. When this house was originally built, more than 100 years back, cooking would have been done over an open firepit. But, as Brustad and his partner, Yuki Shirato, a lawyer turned tech entrepreneur, assemble a fine spread on their slick, stainless-steel island, they're setting an example of how contemporary life can unfold within this age-old envelope.