Nowhere in the world have architects built homes as small as in Japan, and nowhere have they done so with such ingenuity and success. How to Make a Japanese House presents 21 lessons in how to design a single-family home from three decades of architectural practice. From the Western perspective, in which more space is better space, small interiors may once have seemed undesirable, but Japanese architects have long excelled at overcoming the limitations of building in densely populated areas and creating brilliant effects of spaciousness with minimal square footage. As urban areas across the world grow only more dense in population, a knack for the economic handling and design of domestic space has clearly established itself as a key virtue of contemporary architectural practice. Through a rich array of research, interviews, drawings and photographs, How to Make a Japanese House demonstrates that Japanese homes present a radically different way of thinking about architecture, and provide inspiration for dwelling on a smaller scale.
Featured image, of Masahiro Harada's "Rainy Sunny" house in Suginami-ku, Tokyo, is reproduced from How to Make a Japanese House.
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Architect Sou Fujimoto's 2008 reinforced concrete "House N" in Oita, Japan, is a featured project in nai010 Publishers' fascinating bestseller, How to Make a Japanese House. Fujimoto explains, "I wanted to propose a new prototype for a house with a garden in the city, with a contradiction built into it: it has a garden that seems to be both inside and outside. Secondly, I tried to create something that is back-to-basics. I made a garden, covered by a huge box that resembles a ruin of an ancient structure. Only walls are left and the window frames hold no glass. It makes for a very dreamlike garden. But the garden is not only a garden. When inside the house many layers surround us, and the garden is one of those layers. Through the openings we can see the garden, but also the sky and the not-so-attractive old houses of the neighbors. The garden, the neighbors and the sky contain an equal hierarchy. Compare it with the effect of shakkei (borrowed scenery) used in the arrangement of a traditional Japanese garden. In House N each layer works like shakkei. That’s why we feel depth.’" continue to blog
FORMAT: Pbk, 6.75 x 9.5 in. / 324 pgs / 146 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $55.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $72.5 ISBN: 9789056628505 PUBLISHER: nai010 publishers AVAILABLE: 9/30/2012 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA LA ME
Published by nai010 publishers. Text by Cathelijne Nuijsink.
Nowhere in the world have architects built homes as small as in Japan, and nowhere have they done so with such ingenuity and success. How to Make a Japanese House presents 21 lessons in how to design a single-family home from three decades of architectural practice. From the Western perspective, in which more space is better space, small interiors may once have seemed undesirable, but Japanese architects have long excelled at overcoming the limitations of building in densely populated areas and creating brilliant effects of spaciousness with minimal square footage. As urban areas across the world grow only more dense in population, a knack for the economic handling and design of domestic space has clearly established itself as a key virtue of contemporary architectural practice. Through a rich array of research, interviews, drawings and photographs, How to Make a Japanese House demonstrates that Japanese homes present a radically different way of thinking about architecture, and provide inspiration for dwelling on a smaller scale.
