From a courtyard to look at, to a courtyard you want to spend time in

We installed wood-grain tiles in the courtyard of a detached house in Mitaka City.

Even at the time the construction was finished, it had turned into a calm and composed courtyard.

Later, when I saw the photos with the plants added,
I felt as if the space had reached another level of completion.



Light filters through the leaves,
and shadows fall onto the tiles.

Even in the summer sun,
it looks somewhat cool.

The soft expression of the wood-grain tiles and the green of the plants overlap, creating a quiet sense of comfort throughout the entire courtyard.

The appeal of wood-grain tiles is not just in their appearance.

In a courtyard, you water the plants.

Soil can spill, mud stains can occur from rain, and fallen leaves can accumulate.

In such places, ease of maintenance is just as important as the beauty of the flooring material.

Tiles are resistant to water and mud stains, and are a material that is easy to wash off when they get dirty.

Unlike natural wood, they do not rot or develop splinters. The fact that they basically do not require periodic painting is also an advantage for outdoor use.

You can feel the warmth of wood while utilizing the durability of tiles.

That is the great appeal of wood-grain tiles.

The layout is not decided by appearance alone.

In this construction, there is also a reason for the tile layout.

Long, narrow tiles like the ones used can sometimes have slight warping as a characteristic of the product.

Therefore, if you use a common running bond pattern where adjacent tiles are offset by half, the center part with the most warping will overlap with the edge of the adjacent tile.

This creates a difference in height between the tiles, making unevenness or steps in the floor more noticeable.

Since it affects not only the appearance but also the feel when walking, care must be taken with the layout for long tiles.

We also considered a 300mm offset.

As a way to suppress steps caused by warping, we also thought about a running bond pattern offset by 300mm.

However, this terrace is wide in the horizontal direction, and the tiles themselves are long and narrow.

If we continued to offset by a fixed dimension, the joint positions would repeat across the wide floor surface, and there was a possibility that the flow of vertical joints would appear concentrated in specific areas.

Therefore, this time, we installed them using a 'staggered joint' pattern where the joint positions are changed little by little.

This is to suppress steps caused by tile warping while ensuring that the joints do not lean toward one place when looking at the wide floor surface.

That the steps are not bothersome when viewed up close.

That the flow of the joints looks natural when viewed from a distance.

The result of considering both of these is this layout.

Because each piece is different, look at the whole.

Wood-grain tiles have different expressions for each piece, even within the same product.

Some are bright.

Some are a little darker.

Some have clear wood grain.

Some are relatively subtle.

If you arrange them without checking those differences, similar colors may gather in one part, making the entire floor look unnatural.

During construction, we adjusted the placement while looking at the color and pattern of each piece so that the shades would mix naturally.

Up close, you can enjoy the wood grain of each piece.

From a little further away, the entire floor looks like one natural surface.

In tile work, I feel that it is necessary to look at both the single piece in front of you and the entire space.

A tile deck changes more than just the floor.

A courtyard can sometimes be just a place to look at from inside the room.

However, when the floor is organized, the way it is used changes.

Taking care of plants.

Placing a chair to rest.


Watching the morning light or the way the leaves sway.

Feeling the outside air a little while staying inside the house.

By making it a tile deck, the courtyard changes from a 'place to look at' to a 'place you want to spend time in'.

The goodness of tiles is not just that they are durable and resistant to dirt.

Making the place easier to use and being able to increase the time spent there.

I believe there is value in tiles there as well.



Looking at the courtyard this time, I felt that the layout and color arrangement I was thinking about during construction had become one scene along with the plants and light.

When laying tiles, I am not just looking at the one piece in front of me.

What will be placed in that space after it is completed, and how will it be used?

Is it beautiful when viewed up close?

Does it look natural as a space when viewed from a distance?

I think that imagining up to that point is what it means to create a space with tiles.

Thank you very much.