Reading a ton about Japanese architecture. Completely blown away at their ability to not follow anything but to just be in the now.
Japanese folks build somewhere and for a purpose. Maybe they want a view, maybe they want to mostly live in a big room, maybe they need to alleviate a noisy road. Maybe the lot is 4 meters (13 ft) large.
It’s never about “I need 4 bedrooms, a garage for my F250 and my house needs to look like a 1543 Italian Renaissance retreat”. That’s… Not it.
It’s about building ways for you to enjoy life, and it depends heavily on the site, its surroundings and the owner’s intention.
That means a whole lot of brainstorming.
Feelings first, looks later. Check those out:
Anti Dwelling House, 1972
Built for the architect’s mom. So yeah, a single-person home with a great skylight. Who wouldn’t like that?
Miyamajima Residence, 1973
Built around a 45cm grid, in and out. Conceptual AF.
Mini House, 1998
Tokyo. Ultra-dense and compact lots. Yet this house offers a lot of room, even a roof terrace and a parking space.
House N, 2008
Apertures arranged randomly to preserve privacy, windows designed in accordance with the golden ratio. CRAZY (so, so bold)
Nasu Tepee, 2013
Owners wanted to preserve trees around, so they designed rooms to fit between trunks. Since the interior would be dark when trees are thick with leaves, windows were placed at the top to provide natural light. Simple, yet amazing.
Necklace House, 2006
Built in a region with a lot of snow, most houses there have few openings. This one was completely optimized to provide natural light in every room and situation.
Optical Glass House, 2012
This one faces a 8-lane boulevard so they created a glass wall made of 6,000 glass bricks neatly tied together by stainless steel rods. Right behind the glass wall is a small garden with trees. The effect is that the noise is vastly reduced if not completely taken care of, while traffic and light blur together through the bricks. GE-NIUS
House NA, 2011
Take a tour. Isn’t it amazing? To live in a house like this has to change you deeply. You have to love stairs for sure though.
Just a few examples. There are so many incredible homes out there.
We are so boring with our shoeboxes that leak everything.