Japanese Architecture
Architectural design informed by Japanese principles, aesthetics, and building traditions.
MUSE (ミューズ): A Fukuoka Meditation Complex That Lets Light, Water and Timber Outrank the Structure
A walled Zen courtyard, a timber hall split by a single skylight and huts hung from concrete portals turn sensory cues into a sequence for stillness.
Aida Atelier Gathers a Café, Library and Workspaces Around a Brick Stove in a Rural Nagano Clearing
In Miyota, Nagano, a 185 m² cedar-clad building stacks a café, kitchen, library and workspaces around a log column and a heat-storing brick stove.
Tato Architects Veils a Former Kyoto Bank in Stainless Mesh to House a 55-Year-Old Cinema
In Kyoto, Tato Architects relocates the 55-year-old Minami Kaikan cinema into a 1993 bank, fronting it with a woven steel screen built to catch light.
HYAN Inherits a 1970s Timber House in Hayama and Turns It into a Home and Studio for Its Founders
In the hills of Hayama, a pre-1981 timber house survives as a layered home and studio of plaster alcoves, red tile and sunken rooms.
Mono in Mist: A Castle Wall Rebuilt in Water Hides Three Sunken Meditation Gardens in Fukuoka
Below a public park of pools and mist, a waterfall-ringed basin turns meditation, hotel rooms and a castle-wall metaphor into one descending journey.
Kenta Hirayama Architect & Associates Lifts Daily Life Above an Atelier on a Pine-Lined Tokyo Street
In Kinuta, Setagaya, a 145 m² gabled house defers to its red pines and older neighbors, placing workshop and bedroom below and daily life under the roof.
Ukei Shimada Wraps His Own Suginami House in Chain-Operated Shitomido Shutters and a Green Tile Courtyard
A 112 m² architect's own home in Suginami, Tokyo, where hinged timber shutters, a green tile courtyard and shifting volumes break up a flat suburb.
APOLLO Architects Wraps a Sakai Hilltop House in a Dark Street Wall and Floats a Timber Roof Above It
In Sakai, Japan, Moment Residence hides behind a textured street wall, then opens a glazed, double-height living room beneath a deep timber eave.
Ryuichi Sasaki Gives Western Tokyo's Geography a Concrete Form in a Five-Storey Nakano Apartment Block
In Nakano, Tokyo, eleven compact apartments stack above a basement behind concrete, shifting windows and diagonally split stone-textured panels.
Pause
Building a place for contemplation and meditation
Can anyone explain me the FAQ's 3rd question: What are the programmatic features of the designed contemplation complex? Is this about how we put together the different functions of the building?
Yes it represent the functions of the building.
Horibe Associates Wedges a 17 m² Timber Café Between a Historic Shrine and a New Theater in Takatsuki
In Takatsuki, Japan, a glazed café of just 17 square meters, with deep cedar eaves, links an old shrine gate to a new performing arts theater.
OOOarchitecture Wraps a Chiba Day Center for Neurodivergent Children Around a Courtyard of Discovery
In Chiba, Japan, a U-shaped day-care center for children with developmental disabilities turns corridors, benches and decks into a landscape for play.
HAH - Hexagonal Affordable Housing
Abbreviated as HAH for 'hexagonal affordable housing', the design is for a mid-rise residential building comprised of 84 trapezoidal housing cells that are attached to a structural grid and slide in and out, much like drawers in a dresser. It explores various lighting concepts and the Japanese shinchintaisha movement through a modern, technological lens.
nanometer architecture Lifts a Timber House onto Steel Stilts to Keep a Japanese Hillside's Farmland Slope
In Western Japan, a cedar-clad house hovers on a black steel frame, turning a 5-meter farmland slope into a sheltered garden residents must walk through.
ULTRA STUDIO Rescales Tokyo's Tiled Towers and Retaining Walls into a Terraced Apartment Block in Uehara
In Tokyo's sloping Uehara district, a 899 m² apartment block turns overlooked street habits, tile, plinths and hanging gardens, into architecture.
Koichi Takada Architects Carves an Oval Void into a Timber-Louvered Office Block in Shibuya
A five-storey creative workspace near Shibuya Crossing wraps itself in horizontal timber fins and scoops out a sculpted oval that pulls the street inside.
KEY OPERATION Threads Planted Clerestories Through an Eight-Storey Tower Facing Tokyo's Naka-Ikebukuro Park
On a tight corner in Toshima, Tokyo, planted transom bands tie shops and an owner's home to a civic plaza by day and filter light onto it at night.
STUDIO YY Shapes a Canoe Boathouse in Rural Shimane Around the Hull of a Balinese Jukung
In Misato Town, Shimane, a timber boathouse for the 2030 National Sports Festival borrows its arcing Accoya roof and carved gates from Bali.
So so inspiring! fine details i love your work, compositions are very well balances and the atmosphere is surely set. I'm definitely lingering around this