CUBIST
COCOON

Nine lofts designed to challenge your senses.

Walking into the Reversible Destiny Lofts in suburban Mitaka, Tokyo, is a disorienting experience. Next door to a McDonald’s and some uniform beige apartment buildings, the complex appears as a sudden burst of colors and shapes, improbably stacked three stories high. It looks like a pile of children’s blocks writ large. Inside each loft, where you must proceed sock-footed, the floor is pitched, bumpy and undulating. A sunken kitchen stands at the center of the circular space, a hammock hanging from the ceiling next to it. Small rooms—straight out of Dr. Seuss—are attached at jaunty angles orbiting the main room. Walking around can make you dizzy at first. 

Discombobulation is the whole point. The lofts were created in 2005 by archit...