Rectangle of Light by Jun Igarashi

Located in Sapporo, Japan, The Rectangle of Light was designed by Jun Igarashi Architects.

House A by Ryue Nishizawa

House A, located in Tokyo, Japan, is a prime example of modern Japanese architecture. The 1 person home, designed by the office of Ryue Nishizawa, features a very compact and efficient floor plan, common in the dense urban landscape of Tokyo. The facade of the building mainly consists of steel frame and glass, and the material palette for the interior is wood and concrete for the flooring and white paint for the walls. The home is located on a narrow site, and each of the spaces were designed according to its function and the necessary furniture. Though the building would be categorized as high density housing, the building has enough space so that the single occupant can entertain guests.

The building is different from buildings in the US for a number of reasons. First, the building’s highly efficient layout is a stark contrast to the large homes typically associated with American architecture. Another quality of the building that is different from local architecture is the purity and simplicity of the materials and their installation. The spaces are calm and serene, and the white paint and ample windows create soft ambient lighting. The simple and elegant design is common to the language of modern Japanese architecture. One other detail in House A that is used often in Japanese architecture is the articulation of different spaces by changes in ceiling height. The detail is not only common to modern Japanese architecture, but traditional Japanese architecture as well.

House A is an intelligent solution to the narrow, small site that it occupies. The simple and clean details create a comfortable and efficient living space that pays homage to the traditional and modern legacy of Japanese architecture.

Subtractive Massing: The Tofu House by Jun Tamaki

The “Tofu House,” developed by Jun Tamaki, played with the basic method in which the masses were formed. The architectural experiment showed parallels to the subtractive nature of the book projects assigned by Arens. The monolithic block that makes up the one story residence is juxtaposed with the black roof and gravel. Basic geometric squares formed the simplistic spaces but moveable partitions allow for that space to be manipulated for the user’s comfort. 

Another important feature is the focus and attention paid to the entering sequence. An elongated hallway takes the significance off of the door and onto the special quality being created. The initial space serves as the living room, dining area, and welcoming space. The height of the space helps determine its use and function. The bedroom is located in the back of the house allowing for the front of the house to be focused on the daytime and more public spaces. What makes the “Tofu House” innovative is the priority placed on the central public space and social aspects rather than the private quarters.

by Josh Hines

House in Buzen by Suppose Design Office

Japanese architecture is rooted in simplicity, attention to detail, and efficiency in the use of resources. The spaces in both modern and traditional Japanese homes are designed to be multifunctional, with the delineation of space being implied by shoji screens rather than heavy walls and doors. A great deal of attention is paid in regard to the home’s interface to the outdoors. The connection between the built environment and its surroundings is a major aspect of Japanese design.

One example of a home having a strong connection to the outdoors is the House in Buzen, Fukuoka, by Suppose Design Office. Suppose is a firm based in Japan. They have two offices, one in Tokyo and one in Hiroshima. They focus on design and supervision of architecture, interior, landscape, renovation, products, and furniture.

The House in Buzen was built in 2009 and had an interesting design motive behind it. Suppose wanted to create a design that captured the open feeling of a playground naturally. Rather than a collection of rooms, they thought of this concept as a “collection of constructions”. The main rooms are completely roofed in to seem like a standalone structure, while the immense glass ceiling covers paths connecting the spaces. The result brings in a large amount of natural light, covering all of the walls and really blurring the line between outdoor and indoor spaces. According tot the architect, they “wanted to move past the inside-outside relationship to find new types of connections.”

It is a home design like I have never seen before. Although it is a small home, there is a grand playful quality to the spaces. The dialog with the exterior has traditionally been important in Japanese culture, but this home really helps to change the perception of what is inside and what is outside.

Roof House by Tezuka Architects

The conventional idea of a house being an enclosure of four walls and a roof was challenged by Tezuka Architects in their Roof House project. The proposal came from the clients who used to eat on the roof of their old house. Made out of wood, a prominent characteristic of Japanese architecture, the Roof House breaks the roof “boundary” by giving each room a skylight and roof access. The 10:1 pitched roof allows for live-able and communal interaction. Aside from being a place to interact, the roof also has a shower, dinning table and a kitchen.

The interior has a predominant living room in which every room in the house is adjacent to it. There are no swinging doors, but a series of pocket doors keep the rectilinear rhythm of the shape and walls of the house

.

Following traditional practices of Japanese architecture, the roof is always one of the most important components of the design, and in this project it is the most important feature. Sitting on the top of a hill the roof pitch hints you at the slope of the topography making an important connection to the land, another characteristic of the Japanese style. The Japanese were very conscious of merging outside spaces with inside spaces, a call to the relationship between nature and man. The roof is a symbol of the land, nature, and when the residents engage with the roof it tells a story of mans story dwelling on the earth.

Roof House

There is little distinguishing the low sloped roof from a large deck in this house located in Hadano, Japan. One hour drive from the urban center of Tokyo, this residential home, also known as Roof House, was designed by Tezuka Architects in 2001. The main and only floor of this house is divided carefully into rooms, all organized around the living space. Dividing the interior are light sliding elements that allow the rooms to disintegrate into one large space. The side of the house that faces the street is made of a solid concrete wall, keeping the house mysterious and private from passerby’s. The other side, which faces the valley below is made of glass, opening up the main living areas to the small garden.

The large glass wall isn’t the only thing that opens the house to the outside world. The Roof House gets its name from the eight skylights that contain ladders leading from the main house, up to the expansive roof. The roof of this house has been designed as an extension of the living space. What is seen as a thin roofline from the street becomes an expansive plane of specially designed roofing that doubles as a deck. The slight slant of the roof opens the whole area to the view of the mountains and the city in the valley below. The roof becomes a place to sunbathe eat meals and enjoy life outside of the city. It creates a communal space without the confines of walls while retaining the houses simple footprint.

Toda House (2011) by Kimihiko Okada

Coiled upon a hill in Hiroshima with a view of the Inland Sea and Miyajima rests Kimihiko Okada’s unusual take on a family home. 

Perched above the ground on stilts akin to a bird’s nest the house affords a stunning view as well as a measure of security. By raising the house a full story above ground the architect increases the privacy of the inhabitants without needing to add full walls, instead using a ribbon spandrel wall with varying heights.

   

       

The house itself is remarkable in that it is not a series of rooms but a single space that is coiled above and around the site. The slab floor and roof consist of one continuous plate that allows for future expansion. 

Together with the spandrel wall, the slab floor and roof create a flowing space with no defined separate rooms and the program defined only by the clients.

Like many other homes in Japan, the size of the land was smaller than those of typical American plots of land. The client not only needed a home on the site, but parking as well as space to build a shop in the future. 

The unique shape of the building and it’s relation to the ground neatly solves the issue. The area below the house by the stilts creates ample parking while the volume defined by the building itself creates a beautiful garden space that frames the sky and ties the home to the land.

 This fluid family home is one of flexibility and connection; The structure, layout, and fluid interior are all designed to accommodate change and extensions. And every aspect of the residence ties together, from the view of the Inland Sea the clients sought to capture, to the uninterrupted interior, to the framed garden space created by the house.

                 

The B House

The B House in Shimisaki, Kyushu Island, Japan was designed by Nishiyama Architects in conjunction with Anderson Architects. This house is situated on a hillside overlooking Kumamoto, Japan and has a modern and sustainable design that incorporates elements of traditional Japanese architecture.

Like the houses in ancient Japan and many of the modern Japanese houses, the B house only has necessary spaces. The 1100 sq. ft., two bedroom, one bath house was designed for two school teachers. The simple plan includes a large, open room for dining and living, a small, elongated kitchen and an entry way and uses sliding screens between rooms. The house was designed with clean, simple lines and the decoration inside the house is also very clean and simple. All of this was designed and built for US$154,000, an extremely modest budget for the area. This simple, minimalistic way of living identifies with traditional Japanese ideals and is prevailing in modern Japanese homes.

Another way the house associates with traditional Japanese ideals is through connecting with nature and utilizing sustainable design. The house is oriented south with large, south facing windows, in order to best capture the view of Kumamoto castle, local orange groves, and surrounding hills and to allow for passive solar heating of the concrete floor slabs. The locally and sustainably harvested timber that makes up much of the house also connects it with the surrounding environment. The section of pitched roof on the house has south-facing photovoltaic panels that provide the house with hot water. This slanted roof also allows for natural day lighting without summer heat gain and a natural ventilation draft throughout the home. The roof also has a water catchment system to allow for a future green roof. Overall, the B House typifies Japanese sustainable design in the modern world.