Japanese contemporary architecture - the best of
An overview of projects, products and exclusive articles about japanese contemporary architecture - the best of
Project • By EA Research and Design Office / Takeru Shoji • Private Houses
ta house
Located atop the sand dune hills of Futaba-cho in the Chuo ward of Niigata city, the area has a notable history. 170 years prior, the area was an erosion control forest meant to bind the sand and prevent it from blowing into the city. After a large fire in Niigata, the city underwent a large scale urban development project in the 1960s and 70s, where this erosion control forest gave way to the construction of educational and residential buildings.
Presently, the formerly large residential units of the area are being divided into smaller segments, leading to a densely packed residential area. The site on which “ta house” is built, is also part of this history.
The site is in a flagpole shape, (a flagpole site has a narrow entry path lead... More
Project • By EA Research and Design Office / Takeru Shoji • Private Houses
sakuramori house
Located in the heavy snowfall region of Yokote city, Akita prefecture, the site originally comprised of a large residence, a storehouse and a large Japanese garden. Our design direction was to demolish the original house and storehouse, and rebuild atop the site, a more compact house for the couple. It was very important for the clients to preserve onsite large Japanese garden, as they had nurtured it for many years, and since the site receives such heavy snowfall, they also sought a more comfortable relationship with this environment and its hardships.
With this brief, we proposed a building where all the daily living activities and spaces are arranged on the first floor and the second floor is a low ceiling loft. Thus, in essence creati... More
Project • By EA Research and Design Office / Takeru Shoji • Private Houses
on house
The site is located in an old and quiet neighborhood of Sakata city, Yamagata prefecture, near the national highway that runs through the Tohoku region.
On house is designed for a family of four whose design brief detailed the need for a house that can cater to the individuality of each member of the family. The clients wanted a house where each member of the family can have their own space but they can feel the presence of others around them.
With this brief in mind, we scattered 3 towers on the large 330 square meter site and connected them using a deep eave band at the mid-level of the towers. When the residents travel in between the towers, they will invariably cross spaces, like the doma (cement floor) corridor or the terrace, under... More
Project • By EA Research and Design Office / Takeru Shoji • Private Houses
M house
Located in the mountain basin of Uonuma, Japan; the city does a complete turnaround from warm humid summers to snow covered winters. Here the temperature can reach up to 30 degree celcius in summers with over 80% humidity, while in winter the city might receive snowfall reaching up to 3 meters in height. Thus, a house built in this region needs to not only face the adversities of the land but also create an environment where the residents can thrive within their surroundings.
The conventional design approach to counter this snow is to elevate the living spaces, use mechanical means to melt rooftop snow using ground water and have thick walls with additional insulation. But all these measures create an isolation between the inside a... More
Project • By EA Research and Design Office / Takeru Shoji • Private Houses
se house
The residential area where the site is located abuts a high-speed motorway in the Nishi ward of Niigata, Japan. The area was embanked with concrete retaining walls over 50 years ago and with age, these walls have weakened. Our design approach to alleviate the stresses incurred by these walls was to reduce the soil inside the site and convert the space into a courtyard. We chose to create a scenic space within these walls for the generation to come, who will inherit this site for the next 50 years.
By removing the soil and freeing up the space to create a new basement, a new benefit revealed itself. The height of the retaining walls not only reduced the noise coming from the high-speed motorway, it also blocked the stron... More
Project • By ALTS DESIGN OFFICE • Private Houses
shimotoyama-house-renovation
In the surrounding is the countryside landscape, in a 53 yr old Japanese house of 80 tsubos, the young couple and their children purchased it for residence and decided to renovate.
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Making the new concept of living a new life in a 53 yr old Japanese house 53 years ago and continuing to the next generation, we can hope to harmonize between the good ancient things with new things and thought of a house that can interconnect the middle area.
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First of all, we removed the part which was expanded and renovated in the 53 years of construction, returned to the original ricefield character style, and tried to insert new elements there.
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The Original Japanese style room was made into a... More
Project • By Mount Fuji Architects Studio • Hotels
Plus
The site locates on mountainside of Izu-san, where Pacific Ocean can be looked down on the south. The untouched wilderness, covered with deciduous broad-leaved trees such as cherry trees and Japanese oaks, gives little level ground. But we saw faint glimmer of architectural possibility along the ridge. The architecture would be used as villa for weekends.
I didn’t want to just form the undulating landscape dotted with great trees as normal, nor design an elaborate architecture bowing down to the complex topography. What sprang to my mind is a blueprint for an architecture which is perfectly autonomous itself, at the same time seems to emerge as an underlying shape that the natural environment has been hiding. It’s abstraction of nature,... More
Project • By Furumoto Architect Assosiates co., ltd. • Apartments
House with Shining Wall
"Windows are not necessary. I want a closed house." In addition to this unique request, a difficult situation was that the permissible building area was only approximately 13 tsubos (approximately 43m2). While not giving an impression that the house opens toward the outside by installing the least number of openings, our main subject was to provide a spacious chamber and create a richness of appearance in the house. We devised and utilized the three-dimensions of the building to meet the demand. That is, we clarified the role and pattern of each opening and related the openings to the cross-sectional development of the building.
Cross-sectionaly the house consists of three cores: space for get-togethers, stairs, and kitchen and bathroom,... More
Project • By Archivision Hirotani Studio • Offices
Fujitsubo Beauty Parlor
This beauty parlor stands in the Omote-sando area of Tokyo, which represents one of the trend setting centers for this metropolis. The building has three roof openings which pours light into the interior and, which, by slit-like openings in the floor is led into the floors below, reaching the ground floor, which in turn can be seen from the street level through its large glass windows. Thereby, expressing the image of a “vessel of light.” It is, also, a message of “nature” in an area where there is an abundance of “artificial” light. Structurally, the shape of a “barnacle” with its thin yet hard cladding being the image, the three four-cornered conical forms in reinforced concrete are the structural elements for the roof and walls. Copp... More
Project • By Yasutaka Yoshimura Architects • Housing
Nowhere but Sajima
29.July.2016
Cutting resort environment out of urban environment
Nowhere resort is the resort program that is renting out weekly vacation house. Suggesting new urban life style by making shorten the distance to weekend house from standard 3 hours up to 1 hour. The environment must get close to urban when shorten the distance, the issue comes to how to cut off resort environment out of there. Therefore Nowhere but Sajima comes to build long and thin tube-like spaces that bundle them into one home unit. The tube-like spaces are facing toward the ocean and at the same time intercept the sight from the next condominium. The building is controlling both privacy and scenery.
A home for guests
Nowhere but Sajima provides a temporary ‘hom... More
Project • By ARTechnic architects • Private Houses
Shell
A large shell shaped structure finds itself in the middle of the woods. It is hard to determine what exactly the structure is, and unlike the surrounding caves and rocks, it clearly is not a part of nature – nor is it a ruin. A frame, a shape, made at a completely different place for a completely different purpose. Within this shell shaped structure will one find floors constructed, wall separating spaces, and rooms furnished. The scenery conjures a SF film-like image, in which locals inhabit over an abandoned spacecraft. With time, trees start to grow encircling the spacecraft, harmonizing it into the landscape.
Desiring a place that will be occupied frequently over many years and yet at the same time be in sync with nature, we came... More
Project • By ICU Architects • Housing
Kok
This is a 14 room collective houses located in Chofu city, Tokyo.
Low-rise houses are spread around here. But as city-landscape, this place is felt like a ‘’basin’’— old high-rise apartment and building surrounds this site. The car park and the small square in opposite side of front road, and wide frontage site lead us to think about direct relation to the city.
This building is composed of 6 vertical voids and 3 horizontal voids. Each rooms surround each void. These voids produces moderate distance between each rooms and the city, and at the same time, articulates rooms and spaces. Especially important is horizontal voids as terrace or entrance, are not private space. This void suggests meaning of ‘’come together’’. Collective house is... More
Project • By SOYsource Architectural Design Office inc. • Churches
Sendai Baptist Church
Year of 2005, a small pretty building was finishing its role as a church. People loved the building for more than 50 years but they had to decide to tear it down because of its structural and some functional problem, in other words, simply too old. Children of God need new building for the church with its pastorate and kindergarten for next 50 years.
The site is located at the central area of Sendai, the largest city in northeastern part of Japan. It is surrounded by 10 to 14 story unrecognizable “Mansion” or typical apartment houses in Japan.
Our challenge for this project started at the point, figuring out meaning of existence of the church in the area. For maintaining its symbolic status, the church has to be solid, real, discernible... More
Project • By Akinari Tanaka • Hospitals
Owari Orthodontic Office
This dental Clinic is in suburb of Nagoya, Japan. The demand of the client is the room which can be relaxed and the noticeable outside.
First, I thought that relaxation room needs to get good scenery. However, outdoor advertisings, electrical wires and structures were destroying this scenery, though there is spacious sky and rice field in Japan's suburb. I traced good things and bad things in the landscape, then the drawing line became one belt. By fastening the belt to the scenery, the spacious sky and rice fields are taken up but outdoor advertising, etc. are covered. And I just made the belt a architecture. As a result, this building came to have a facade along a major road without windows. Along this major road, rather, a taciturn f... More
Project • By Ciel Rouge • Apartments
VILLA RONDE
By the japanese coast, this building includes a private museum, a guest house and a resort. It is thought as a wide free organic space in which rooms can be closed or in continuity to each other around a patio. The round shape is the best to cover the beautifull view around as well as to resist and glide in the strongs thyphons winds. The building itself seems to grow from an hill in which air system circulate to ventilate permanently the house.
Everything is thought for the best thermic natural ratio with a double facade for protecting from winds and sun, as well as the roof is covered by 30cm of earth ncluding a watering system .
The building takes the same color from the rocks as it was emerging in the green. Inside it is thought... More