Best of #Japan

Small spaces, generous use of wood, purity of lines are some of the ingredients of the contemporary Japanese architects’ projects both when building, refurbishing or designing a shop.

– Shigeru Ban Architects conceived this house in Japan as part of an ongoing study on Mies Van der Rohe’s work.

– Case-Real use a particular local stone to express the poetry of the surroundings for the new Aesop shop in Sapporo.

– For the three storey 4 columns house in Tokyo, FT Architetcs took inspiration from the Kura, traditional Japanese storehouses, in order to better organize the internal space and distribution.

– The house APOLLO Architects & Associates designed for an art collector in Japan is an hybrid structure with a podium and wooden boxes organized in two floor levels on top.

– A refurbishment intervention tells the story of Saito House, the way it was built and its age, making everything visible in the interiors.

– For the renovation of an apartment in Tokyo for a young couple, Ryohei Tanaka / G architects studio uses touches of colour – red and blue – to give a playful taste to the couple’s new life.

– For a hand-forged knives manufacturer, Yusuke Seki designed a sophisticated shop using wood, that recalls the cutting board, concrete and a touch of blue.

– Using the height, Coo planning designed a house in Osaka, clad in vertical timber panels that maximize the space on a very, very small corner plot.
– Near a Torii gate in a typical Japanese rural landscape, the house designed by FORM/Kouichi Kimura Architects is a white U-shaped building that blends with the scenery.

– The simple gesture of inserting a curved plywood structure creates a new space, while maintaining the history of this traditional Japanese house in Hyogo, refurbished by Tato Architects.

Top: FORM/Kouichi Kimura Architects, Courtyard house, Shiga, Japan