Future Development Of Japanese Dwelling Houses

Published in 1905,' Future Development of Japanese Dwelling Houses' examines the coming evolution of Japanese house architecture design as it began welcoming Western influences. The book includes various photographs and illustrations to understand the subject better.

Single-family houses are becoming increasingly outdated. They offer no response to demographic change or to the fact that there are fewer and fewer life-long relationships. They are often too inflexible for new family models or ways of cohabitation. This publication presents projects in recent years in Japan, which respond to the need for new forms of housing. The architects are developing solutions that allow residents to live together but still maintain enough distance and privacy. The presented apartment types and their layout allow for a variety of life models. Particularly interesting here is the use of spaces that provide a gradual transition from public to private space—an approach to building that, according to experts, could revolutionize western residential architecture. The publication portrays these new forms of building and living based on prominent Japanese examples that include Shigeru Ban, Sou Foujimoto, and Akihisa Hirata.

A remarkable classic work on traditional Japanese architecture and its general integrative quality, the order of space and form, the flexibility of partitions and room functions and other important or unique qualities. The author describes in detail, and with numerous architectural plans and drawings, the influence of the anatomy of the Japanese human body on traditional units of measurement and on house construction. This work is not simply a description of the features of the Japanese house, but "an invitation to probe the possibilities of utilizing this architectural achievement of the Japanese …in modern living and building," according to the author, who further believes that the unique features of the Japanese house are better suited to serve as a pattern for contemporary housing than any other form of residential structure.

This Japanese architecture and design book is a wonderful source of new styles and ideas for those looking to add a distinctively Zen flair to their home. Limited spaces, unlimited technology, a tradition of innovation, and sheer Japanese panache have combined to inspire the 26 stunning homes featured in Japan Houses. Conceived by 24 of Japan's leading architects and designers, each of the houses forecasts and defines a new trend in residential architecture, reinventing the meaning and use of space, material, and function. Traditional lifestyles are challenged, domestic functions such as cooking and entertaining are moved out of the house into the public domain, while laptops bring work back in. Zen minimalist is juxtaposed with comfortable opulence, time-honored workmanship is coupled with exciting new materials, resulting in a recognizable style that belongs to Japan, reflecting its culture and craftsmanship, while at the same time being avant-garde and international. The spirit of each of these astonishing houses is captured in beautiful photographs, plans and commentary.

"A house is a site, the bounds and focus of a community. It is also an artifact, a material extension of its occupants’ lives. This book takes the Japanese house in both senses, as site and as artifact, and explores the spaces, commodities, and conceptions of community associated with it in the modern era. As Japan modernized, the principles that had traditionally related house and family began to break down. Even where the traditional class markers surrounding the house persisted, they became vessels for new meanings, as housing was resituated in a new nexus of relations. The house as artifact and the artifacts it housed were affected in turn. The construction and ornament of houses ceased to be stable indications of their occupants’ social status, the home became a means of personal expression, and the act of dwelling was reconceived in terms of consumption. Amid the breakdown of inherited meanings and the fluidity of modern society, not only did the increased diversity of commodities lead to material elaboration of dwellings, but home itself became an object of special attention, its importance emphasized in writing, invoked in politics, and articulated in architectural design. The aim of this book is to show the features of this culture of the home as it took shape in Japan."

Japanischer Wohnbau faszinierte und fasziniert ganze Architektengenerationen. Gerade die kleinen, sehr konzeptionellen Einfamilienhäuser zeigen neben stringent umgesetzten Wohnkonzepten die grosse Experimentierfreudigkeit in Bezug auf Raumkonstellationen und Materialien und die Fähigkeit auch den kleinsten Raum zu organisieren. Sie sind wie Minilabore, die die Kreativität japanischer Architekten ebenso deutlich zeigen, wie den Umgang mit dem Ephemeren und den vielfältigen Ebenen der Abgrenzung zwischen öffentlich und privat. Durch die Schnelllebigkeit der japanischen Städte entsteht ein riesiger Architekturfundus für den Westen, den Small Houses dokumentiert und dem Leser gleichzeitig die japanische Kultur zugänglicher macht. Kleine Häuser stellt japanische Wohnhausarchitektur vor und richtet sich an Architekten, Innenarchitekten, Studenten und interessierte Laien. Der Fokus liegt dabei auf der Präsentation kleiner Häuser, vorwiegend Einfamilienhäuser. Die Auswahl der Projekte stellt eine Mischung namhafter Architekten, wie zum Beispiel Tezuka Architects oder Atelier Bow-Wow dar, zeigt aber auch ausserhalb Japans noch wenig bekannte Büros. Zu den einzelnen Projekten gibt es Vertiefungen, die dem Leser den kulturellen und gesellschaftlichen Kontext sowie den spezifisch japanischen Umgang mit bestimmten Architekturelementen nahebringen. Auf die Darstellung von Details, die in der Regel ausserhalb Asiens keine Relevanz haben, wird verzichtet. Der Fokus liegt auf dem realisierten Wohnkonzept, das mittels Bild- und Übersichtsplänen (Grundrisse, Schnitte) dargestellt wird.

The Japanese home has always attracted Western architects and designers. With a panache that often borders on the outrageous, modern homes in Japan blend such traditional elements as shoji screens and tatami-matted rooms with what appears, at first glance, to be the thoroughly contemporary elements of the Western home. And yet a closer scrutiny reveals impressively subtle touches. Carefully crafted wooden surfaces throughout the home gleam with a delicate Japanese sense of color and rhythm. The kitchen and living areas are outfitted with modern appliances or furniture, yet the subtle variations in the wall placement and space usage suggest that a different sensibility is at work here. Azby Brown, in his third book on the architecture of Japan, delves into the intricacies of the modern Japanese home by first reaching back some thousand years to its roots to follow its development to the present day. He then steams ahead to explore the state-of-the art Japanese home, with its recycled materials, extruded 30-foot-long woodlike stairway handrails, and dozens of other unique touches. In page after page of this lushly illustrated, full-color volume, Brown presents his take on Japan's ultra-chic, high-tech yet serene home designs. The Japanese Dream House is one of the first English-language books to appear on the subject and is sure to prove an indispensable idea book for architects, designers, and homeowners for years to come.

In a globalising world, many mature economies share post-growth characteristics such as low economic growth, low fertility, declining and ageing of the population and increasing social stratification. Japan stands at the forefront of such social change in the East Asian region as well as in the Global North. It is in this context of ‘post-growth society’ that housing issues are examined, using the experiences of Japan at the leading edge of social transition in the region. The post-war housing system was developed during the golden age of economy and welfare, when upward social trajectories such as increasing population, high-speed economic growth with rising real incomes, housing construction driven by high demands, increasing rates of home ownership supported by generous government subsidies generated new housing opportunities and accompanying issues. As we have entered the post-growth phase of socio-economic development, however, it requires a re-examination of such structure, policy and debates. This volume explores what roles housing plays in the reorganisation and reconstruction of economic processes, social policy development, ideology and identity, and intergenerational relations. The volume offers a greater understanding of the characteristics of post-growth society – changing demography, economy and society – in relation to housing. It considers how a definitive shift to the post-growth period has produced new housing issues including risks as well as opportunities. Through analysis of the impact on five different areas: post-crisis economy, urban and regional variations, young adults and housing pathways, fertility and housing, and ageing and housing wealth, the authors use policy and institutions as overarching analytical tools to examine the contemporary housing issues in a post-growth context. It also considers any relevance from the Japanese experiences in the wider regional and global context. This original book will be of great interest to academics and students as well as policy makers and practitioners internationally in the fields of housing studies, urban studies, social policy, sociology, political economy, comparative analysis, and East Asian Studies.