Japanese Architecture
Architectural design informed by Japanese principles, aesthetics, and building traditions.
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.
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.
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.
