Archinect - News

WHY Architecture reveals Yoshimoto Pavilion for Expo 2025

2024-11-20T10:37:00-05:00

WHY Architecture has shared the first images of its design for the Yoshimoto Pavilion as part of the upcoming Expo 2025 Osaka, which takes place from April 13th to October 13th next year. The spherical waraii myraii (or 'a smiling future') design will host a cultural exchange based around a concept of "expanding new possibilities of laughter for a true 'Future Society For Our Lives.'" We recently featured the firm's current need for an experienced Project Architect in Culver City, CA in a roundup of domestic employment opportunities. WHY is also recently behind the Louvre's planned expansion of its Byzantine and Eastern Christian Art galleries for 2027.

MAD's bubble installation revitalizes a historic house in the Japanese countryside

2024-07-23T20:01:00-04:00

MAD Architects has unveiled a captivating installation that resembles a bubble being gently blown from a traditional wooden structure.

Called the “Ephemeral Bubble,” the project was created for the 2024 Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, an outdoor art exhibition held every three years in Japan’s Niigata Prefecture. The biomorphic design seeks to open a dialogue with the Japanese countryside, the architects say.

Image: Zhu Yumeng

The installation connects to a century-old house in Murono Village known as the China House Huayuan, which has been a hub for Chinese-Japanese cultural exchange. The bubble adds a temporary, flexible space that mimics the lightness and translucence of air.

Image: Zhu Yumeng

The interior of the bubble is expansive and undefined. The reflection of the surrounding greenery and colors within creates an atmosphere of soft light, which is suitable for performances, ceremonies, gatherings, and other events.

Image: Zhu Yumeng

As noted by the architects: “The Ephemeral Bu...

Japanese homebuilder to demolish condo after backlash for blocking views of Mount Fuji

2024-06-26T08:00:00-04:00

A major Japanese homebuilder by the name of Sekisui House has decided to demolish a nearly completed condominium building in western Tokyo following complaints from locals that the building would have blocked views of Mount Fuji.

As reported by The Asahi Shimbun, the company decided to cancel construction on what would have been a 10-story, 18-unit development on June 3rd. It was originally approved by authorities in January 2023 and was scheduled for completion this July. In a statement, the Sekisui House “decided to prioritize preserving the landscape.” The company asserted that it did not violate any construction regulations, however, it did acknowledge lacking awareness of the building’s potential impact on the view.

Sekisui House has yet to decide what it will do with the land after the demolition is complete.

Lina Ghotmeh announces design for Bahrain's National Pavilion at Expo Osaka 2025

2024-06-17T12:01:00-04:00

Lina Ghotmeh’s design for the official National Pavilion of the Kingdom of Bahrain for Expo 2025 Osaka has been revealed along with details of what she calls a “celebration of the bilateral relations” between the Gulf state and Expo’s host nation.

The Lebanese-born French architect’s follow-up to the 2023 Serpentine Pavilion in London offers a highlight of the Kingdom’s distinct maritime heritage and history as a major regional port of trade.

Image: © Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture

What hails as an artful reinterpretation of ancient Bahraini boat-building methods will take shape as a timber structure whose outermost shell is made out of aluminum. Open and porous, the design incorporates natural ventilation methods Its interiors are set to be provided by the award-winning Bahrain-based Shepherd Studio and center around a space dedicated to commerce and promoting the country’s “forward-looking” economy.

Image: © Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture

The pavilion will be realized within the “Empower...

Tohoku University researchers develop real-time stress monitoring materials for aging infrastructure

2024-06-14T08:08:00-04:00

A team of researchers from Japan’s Tohoku University has developed a new mechanoluminescent construction material they say can be used in infrastructure to monitor daily use stress information in real-time in order to avert potential future catastrophes that may result from its aging stock of bridges, roads, and dams.

"What makes our material truly innovative is that it operates without a power supply, complex equipment, or on-site observation and is easily combined with IoT technology," Professor Chao-Nan Xu explains.

Image: © Tomoki Uchiyama, Chao-Nan Xu et al.

Their findings were published in the Applied Physics Letters in early April. The material works by responding to mechanical strain with luminescence using Pr-doped Li0.12 Na0.88 NbO3 (or LNNO). The LNNO finish is then applied to the surfaces of objects, emitting an afterglow produced with the application of a flashlight and then measured quantitatively using a series of light sensors.

"Our findings are expected to allevia...

Fumihiko Maki, a leading icon of modern Japanese architecture, passes away in Tokyo aged 95

2024-06-12T12:56:00-04:00

Fumihiko Maki, the 1993 Pritzker Prize laureate and a leading figure in Japan's Metabolism movement, passed away in Tokyo on June 6th, his Maki and Associates firm announced late Tuesday. He was 95.

Maki was born in Tokyo in 1928 and immigrated to America to study at the Cranbrook Academy of Art and then the Harvard GSD, working in the New York offices of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill (SOM) and for Josep Lluís Sert's Cambridge, Massachusetts studio before returning to Japan to found his own practice in 1965.

Online, Maki is being remembered for his many varied important works spread across three continents. Fans will recall his visionary contribution to the rich lineage of residential architecture in his home country, most notably the multiphase Hillside Terrace Apartments (completed between 1967 and 1992) that garnered several awards, including the country's prestigious Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts in 1973.

Maki's MIT Media Lab (E14) building, home to the Jerome Leme...

BIG's NOT A HOTEL Setouchi weds Danish and Japanese design

2024-05-17T12:59:00-04:00

BIG has designed a new remote hotel concept on Sagi Island, Japan, for the NOT A HOTEL brand, its sixth property overall. The new Setouchi project follows other hospitality designs from the firm, including the new Hôtel des Horlogers in Switzerland and Vollebak Island in Canada.

Rendering: MIR

Rendering: LIT design

A ribbon-like footpath stitches together the mossy archipelago’s natural landscape with the residential portion of the design. Three villas (‘360,’ ‘270,’ and ‘180’) form a sequence staggered at different elevations on the approximately 323,000-square-foot site overlooking the southwestern cape of Sagi Island. Each features its own unique characteristics and corresponding panoramic views of the sea and inner harbor area, with accommodations that vary between three and four bedrooms.

Rendering: MIR

BIG’s founder, Bjarke Ingels, says: "Our design approach for NOT A HOTEL Setouchi wasn’t about imposing our ideas on the site; instead, it...

Sou Fujimoto's wooden Grand Ring for Expo 2025 Osaka is taking shape

2024-05-15T12:42:00-04:00

The Sou Fujimoto-designed wooden Grand Ring roof for the upcoming Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, is coming together just under a year before the fair officially opens to the public on April 13th, 2025.

As detailed in an earlier construction update, the structure will be realized at 1,969 feet (600 meters) in diameter and serve as the main circulatory route for visitors to access the exhibition’s 161 total participating countries and locations.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Expo2025 大阪・関西万博 (@expo2025japan)

A recent press announcement mentions: “With one year to go until Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai Japan welcomes the world to Osaka on 13 April 2025, Japan is ready to bring the international community together for six months of collaboration, creativity, innovation, wisdom, dialogue, and action. In an age where humanity is facing a myriad of unprecedented challenges, the need to unite and cooperate, to make genuine, positive, and sustainable change has never...

In Japan, abandoned and vacant homes are on the rise

2024-05-02T11:42:00-04:00

New government figures show that 5.9% of all Japanese homes are abandoned, while 13.88% of homes are vacant (a total of 9 million homes). The issue is predominantly impacting the country's rural areas, while the number of vacant and abandoned apartments and condo units is also increasing.

Several measures have been undertaken by local and national governments to address the increased cases, which can have consequences for building upkeep and maintenance. In 2022, the city of Nagoya began requiring condo building management to update authorities on the state of their complexes, while, in 2018, Yokohama city asked architects to assess undermanaged condo buildings and set up management associations.

Related on Archinect: Minimalist concrete apartments fill a narrow site in Tokyo, designed by Ryuichi Sasaki Architecture. Image credit: Sherpa

More broadly, Japan passed a law in 2015 allowing local authorities to issue warnings about vacant homes at risk of collapse, including powers to de...

Snøhetta launches national park regeneration project in Japan

2024-04-26T11:57:00-04:00

Snøhetta has announced a new regeneration project with the Japanese private environmental agency BOND. The scheme for a yet-unnamed national park has several planned outcomes aimed a different social and environmental issues in Japan, which is experiencing a crisis of aging and still recovering from damages caused by seismic events in January and throughout the course of the last decade.

In a social media post, Snøhetta says: “Our masterplan will strengthen the relationship between earth, people, and nature, while beginning to heal and restore the scarred landscape to its original state of biodiversity and natural richness. Eco-concepts for health, wellness, and educational facilities are woven together with active public spaces spread across the park. This ecotourism development is the first step in furthering BOND’s vision of linking top stakeholders, government agencies, and locals to offer sustainable solutions for some of the long-term challenges facing the country.”

The firm h...

Makoto Yamaguchi completes Tokyo gaming headquarters with slanting walls and video game metaphors

2024-04-17T11:43:00-04:00

Japanese practice Makoto Yamaguchi Design has completed a headquarters for a game production company in Tokyo inspired by video game elements.

Facing the site of an elevated railway where trains pass on average every 1.5 minutes in both directions, the scheme is defined by slanted walls in response to environmental elements such as light, wind, and sound.

Image credit: Koichi Torimura

Across the building, every slanted wall height is optimized according to the requirements of each floor. The third-floor walls, for example, are increased in height to prevent recording studios from being impacted by external noise. Meanwhile, the height of the slanted walls decreases as the scheme rises to open views of the surrounding city.

Image credit: Koichi Torimura

“The slanted walls protect the interior from the external gaze, making it impossible to tell what the building is for from the outside,” Yamaguchi explains. “Not being able to see the purpose is much the sa...

Sou Fujimoto shares new photos of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai master plan under construction

2024-04-01T15:46:00-04:00

Sou Fujimoto’s studio has shared new construction images of the forthcoming Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai's The Grand Roof circular wooden container structure, a year ahead of the start of the six-month fair, which begins on April 13th, 2025.

The enormous structure is 1,969 feet (600 meters) in diameter and will serve as the main circulatory route for the exhibition, which includes 161 total participating countries/locations.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sou Fujimoto (@sou_fujimoto)

Fujimoto’s team says their design is meant to evoke a sense of "Unity in Diversity" and takes the Stage of Kiyomizu temple in Kyoto and other historic examples of Japanese timber architecture as its inspiration.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sou Fujimoto (@sou_fujimoto)

It will support an aerial walkway that affords visitors sightlines into the arena-like layout encased on the manmade Yumeshima island below and divided into three zones (Pavi...

Pelli Clarke & Partners opens Mori JP Tower, Japan's new tallest building

2024-03-18T13:56:00-04:00

Pelli Clarke & Partners has shared news of their completed work on the Mori JP Tower project inside the Azabudai Hills District in Tokyo. The new tallest building in Japan is a 64-story mixed-used design complementing the two other high-rise structures included in the redevelopment district and was completed last fall at a total height of 330 meters (1,082 feet).

“Mori JP Tower, and with it Azabudai Hills, is among the first buildings visitors see upon arrival to Tokyo, creating a new center and landmark for the city,” Mitch Hirsch, Partner at Pelli Clarke & Partners, said in a project announcement of the scheme. “To design a tower of this significance in a city renowned for its unique skyline is a privilege.”

Photo by Jason O'Rear

The building is designed to evoke the symmetry of a lotus flower form, clad in a distinctive pearl-grey glass curtain facade and topped by a crown made from four separate curved glass pedals.

Photo by Jason O'Rear

Photo by Jason O'Rear...

Fluent in Japanese? Here’s a job opportunity to work on high-end retail projects for Japanese clientele

2024-02-28T12:48:00-05:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for a Design Research and Teaching Fellowship at Northeastern University, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an open role on Archinect Jobs for a Retail Architect with Japanese language skills at O’Neil Langan Architects.

The role, based in New York, calls for an individual to work on high-end retail projects “with an emphasis on Japanese clientele” with the firm therefore noting that “Fluency in Japanese is critical for this role.” Among the responsibilities for the role are project development from schematic design to construction in the retail sector.

Sephora flagship store by O'Neil Langan Architects. Image courtesy: O'Neil Langan Architects

Why the role interests us

The O’Neil Langan role’s emphasis on Japanese fluency offers us the opportunity to look back at some of the intriguing recently completed architecture projects in Japan to be profiled in our editorial. Last month, for example, we covered t...

Trahan Architects unveils U.S. pavilion design for Expo 2025 Osaka-Kansai

2024-02-08T15:06:00-05:00

Trahan Architects has unveiled its USA Pavilion design for World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan. The county’s official entry will play host to a slate of exhibitions designed to showcase American scientific exploration and entrepreneurship and will be completed by an official project team that includes HOOD Design, Dot Dash, and several other specialty studios.

Chicago's former Mayor and the current U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, says it will stand as "an embodiment of American spirit." Organizers are expecting approximately 30 million visitors.

Image: © Trahan Architects

Visitors will pass through a ringed wall that surrounds the Expo before entering the pavilion, which is separated into two wings that are connected via a suspended cubic form serving as a skybridge.

Image: © Trahan Architects

Exterior LED screens installed on its facade will broadcast scenes of America’s urban and natural landscapes. The project reuses steel, HVAC systems, and tensile fabric used in structures o...

Coldefy and Carlo Ratti Associati unveil France’s pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka behind curtain facade

2024-01-12T14:46:00-05:00

A team comprising Coldefy and Carlo Ratti Associati has unveiled their design for France’s national pavilion at World Expo Osaka 2025.

Titled ‘Theatrum Naturae,’ meaning ‘Theatre of Nature,’ the pavilion is inspired by France’s natural landscapes, with a “looping narrative path” that suggests “new entanglements between humans and other forms of life in our cities.”

Image credit: Coldefy and Carlo Ratti Associati

The pavilion features a single pathway that guides visitors through three experiences: Ascent, Discovery of Nature, and Return to the Ground. The experience begins with a staircase that winds to form an observation balcony. The staircase weaves in and out of the pavilion’s porous curtain facade, offering views of the building’s interior before culminating at a heavily vegetated terrace.

Image credit: Coldefy and Carlo Ratti Associati

“The French Pavilion invites visitors to enter the theater of life,” said Coldefy founding partner Thomas Coldefy about the scheme. “Both actors...

Shigeru Ban and the Voluntary Architects' Network pitch in on earthquake relief efforts in western Japan

2024-01-11T16:58:00-05:00

Shigeru Ban and the Voluntary Architects' Network (VAN) are once again in action deploying their patented Paper Partition System in the wake of the recent 7.7 magnitude quake that struck western Japan in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

The indoor privacy system that the Pritzker Prize winner first devised in the late 1980s and deployed later in response to the 1995 Kobe earthquake was installed recently at a gymnasium in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture. The Prefecture is currently home to an estimated 26,000 shelter seekers, according to local reports.

Image courtesy Voluntary Architects' Network via Facebook

The VAN’s response is thus critical towards bolstering local relief efforts in the area that continues to suffer damage as a product of the more than 60 smaller quakes that have continued as recently as two days ago — potentially displacing hundreds or even thousands more.

Image courtesy Voluntary Architects' Network via Facebook

A TED talk featuring Ban’s description of the t...

Minimalist concrete apartments fill a narrow site in Tokyo, designed by Ryuichi Sasaki Architecture

2024-01-05T12:30:00-05:00

Tokyo-based Ryuichi Sasaki Architecture has completed a residential scheme in the western part of the Japanese capital defined by an exposed concrete structure on a constrained site. According to the designers, the three-unit scheme “emphasizes maximal utilization of natural energy and pursues comfortable livability.”

Image credit: BAUHAUS NEO

Designed in collaboration with Kiz Architects and Hidetaka Gonai/Escenario, and completed in the winter of 2022, the project measures only 15 feet wide and 46 feet deep. Responding to the site’s narrow constraints, the scheme sees a single staircase linking four levels, “utilizing the space efficiently to ensure ample living areas.”

Image credit: BAUHAUS NEO

Image credit: Sherpa

The staircase is visually integrated into the living spaces, serving as both functional steps and display storage. In addition, the top floor incorporates a workspace counter atop the staircase to facilitate remote working for residents. Elsewhere...

Toyo Ito donates early-career archive to the Canadian Centre for Architecture

2023-12-06T17:21:00-05:00

The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) has just announced its acquisition of architect Toyo Ito’s early-career archive.

The trove entails drawings, models, and sketches related to his practice Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects (founded as Urban Robot) from 1971 until 1989. The CCA says the donation will help researchers establish a better through line from the 2013 Pritzker Prize winner's early-career work in dialogue with its other archival holdings. The decision was made in September after 82-year-old Ito apparently determined he could not find an “appropriate place” in his home country in which to store the collection, according to The Yomiuri Shimbun.

In a press announcement, Ito said: “The CCA is an architectural museum and research center I have the utmost trust in. Upon this donation, I received requests from many Japanese architects and researchers, asking if it is possible to keep those archives in Japan. However, I have the confidence that CCA offers unparalleled ac...

Heatherwick's Azabudai Hills mixed-use development opens in Tokyo

2023-11-29T14:25:00-05:00

Heatherwick Studio has released a new batch of project images along with an announcement of the long-awaited completion of their Azabudai Hills mixed-use district in Tokyo.

The multi-billion dollar project for Mori Building Co. Ltd. culminates a 30-year regeneration process in the heart of the city’s Minato ward with a new 20-acre design that features two temples, office and retail components, residential buildings, a school, and 5.9 acres of open green space for public use.

Image: Raquel Diniz

In a press announcement, Neil Hubbard, partner and Group Leader at Heatherwick Studio, said: “Over the last 10 years, we have tried to get under the skin of what makes something distinctively Tokyo, whilst at the same time, adding something new that’s fresh and soft to its modern built environment. We wanted to create vistas full of variety and intrigue and spaces to explore. It’s a confluence of different families of design all brought together in one place. I can’t wait to watch people explo...

A submerged Japanese library by Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP as a ‘tranquil place’ for reading and rest

2023-11-29T11:53:00-05:00

Japan-based Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP has offered a look inside their recently completed Library of the Earth. Situated in the Japanese city of Kisarazu, and completed in April 2022, the library is described by the firm as “the library for the farmers, plowing the fields on sunny days and reading books on rainy days.”

Image credit: Koji Fujii / TOREAL

Located in the corner of an active agricultural site, the scheme saw Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP transform a debris-laced plot into a “lush valley.” At the core of the project is a submerged library designed with the principle that “architecture should not occupy the cultivated soil layer but rather exist humbly under the flourishing of plants and microorganisms in the soil.”

Plan credit: Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP

Section credit: Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP

“The earth has been regarded as the source of all life and a symbol of motherhood,” the team explains. “Our wish was to make a small cleft in the earth and create a tr...

OMA's new Toranomon Hills Station Tower opens in Tokyo

2023-10-27T13:48:00-04:00

OMA and Partner Shohei Shigematsu have shared new photos of their just-completed work on the Toranomon Hills Station Tower project for developer Mori Building Co. in Tokyo.

The first high-rise to be completed inside the studio’s larger Toranomon Hills mixed-use district overlooks the terminus of Shintora-dori Avenue, whose axis is extended through a split base containing a Metro station and shopping area. This creates an interface between city and the building that the architects say is essential to their design’s public character, an element that culminates in a top-level cultural center called TOKYO NODE.

Photo: Mori Building Co., Ltd, courtesy of OMA

Photo: Tomoyuki Kusunose, courtesy of OMA

In between the public elements, the total 873-foot tower contains 32 levels of office spaces, a hotel, and two restaurants. Users will approach via an elevated T-Deck pedestrian walkway that connects the site to the surrounding development. Base-level activities are extended vertically in a ban...

Construction begins on Japan’s tallest building, Torch Tower

2023-10-09T15:00:00-04:00

Construction has begun on the Torch Tower, set to be the new tallest building in Japan. The 1,280-foot-tall skyscraper is expected to be completed in March 2028 according to new reporting by The Japan Times.

The Torch Tower is one of four buildings to be constructed as part of a major redevelopment of Tokyo’s historic Tokiwabashi district. Led by developers Mitsubishi Estate, the design team involved in the master plan’s delivery includes Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei, Koji Matsuda, Sou Fujimoto, Yuko Nagayama, and Takanori Fukouka.

Hotel entrance. Image credit: Dorchester Collection

When completed, the Torch Tower will hold a luxury hotel operated by the Dorchester Collection, as well as a 2,000-capacity entertainment hall, offices, and an observation deck. While the hotel, offices, and rooftop observatory will be housed in the tower form, the entertainment hall and retail spaces will be located within a base plinth rising from a single below-ground floor to a sixth above-ground floor.

Ho...

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Tokyo Imperial Hotel prepares for major expansion

2023-09-28T08:00:00-04:00

Paris-based Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architects (ATTA) is moving forward with its plans for a major expansion of Frank Lloyd Wright's beloved Imperial Hotel in Tokyo following their selection as the project’s winning design architect in November of 2021.

The project will be the fourth such major overhaul of Yuzuru Watanabe’s original 1890 design and links Wright (who strove in his multiple renovations from 1923 onward to blend eastern and western motifs as much as possible) with the present-day and future development of architecture as a culture-bridging discipline.

Tane’s instincts for the project were based on his beliefs that the hotel should be returned to its late-1920s reputation as the “Jewel of the Orient,” a source of national pride, and an important cultural exchange. His team says they will utilize a “unique archaeological approach” that considers the many layers of history and typology present at the site while in the process of realizing their design for the new Main Buil...

'A home for tea and life': Japanese and Ukrainian influences blend harmoniously in this Kyoto house renovation

2023-09-25T12:25:00-04:00

Ukraine-based MAKHNO Studio has completed work on a residence in Kyoto, Japan inspired by “sado,” a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. The century-old dwelling has been refurbished with attention to its history and the preservation of authentic elements while “adding a drop of Ukrainian color to the Japanese context.”

Image credit: Naoki Miyashita

The experience begins at the house's entrance, marked by a small tea garden named “roji.” Adorned with Japanese ritual stones and Ukrainian DIDO art sculptures from the MAKHNO workshop, the roji garden sets the tone for a tranquil visit, whose “good entities protect the house from sad thoughts and uninvited guests.”

Image credit: Naoki Miyashita

Upon entry through the “genkan,” or entrance hall, guests are greeted by a collection of Japanese and Ukrainian art. The main living area, segmented by a traditional Japanese screen known as “byobu,” serves multiple functions, showcasing art a...

Sou Fujimoto designs Pace Gallery Tokyo expansion inside Heatherwick's Azabudai Hills development

2023-09-05T16:57:00-04:00

The new home of the Pace Gallery in Tokyo will feature interior spaces designed by Sou Fujimoto inside a three-story portion of Heatherwick Studio’s exciting new Azabudai Hills development, according to plans revealed today by the gallery.

The total 5,500-square-foot design includes some 3,000 square feet of exhibition spaces split between the first and second floors of the gallery. A third floor will also include a private terrace and sculptural garden connected to the landscape component of the 20-acre site, which sits prominently at the nexus of several other cultural destinations in the city’s busy Toranomon commercial district.

The designer of the 2013 Serpentine Pavilion and Musashino Art University Museum and Library will deliver a space that is evocative of his personal explorations and approach to architecture.

Pace says it has been interested in a Japanese expansion since at least the la...

Japanese company delivers 3D printed home ‘bought for the price of a car’

2023-08-17T11:42:00-04:00

Japan-based housing company Serendix has announced the completion of 'serendix50', a 3D printed house that forms part of the company’s mission of building homes that can be bought for the price of a car.

Image credit: Serendix

Serendix first made headlines in March 2022 with the creation of serendix10, a 3D printed home that was printed in under 24 hours. Having sold out the six editions of the home by October, the company undertook the design and construction of serendix50, otherwise known as the ‘barnacle model.’

Image credit: Serendix

The design of Serendix50 was primarily influenced by demand from older married couples seeking a home for their retirement years. The resulting 538-square-foot scheme, developed by a team including the Digital Manufacturing Creation Center, KAP, Tateo Densetsu, Hyakunen Jutaku, and Nabeju, was constructed in 44 hours and 30 minutes.

Image credit: Serendix

Serendix50 merges two digital fabrication techniques: 3D printing for the framework and CNC cuttin...

MUJI converts 100-year-old Japanese house into tranquil Airbnb stay

2023-07-27T12:56:00-04:00

Iconic Japanese design retailer MUJI is back on the residential market with details of its new MUJI Base Kamogawa home renovation project for Airbnb.

Located an hour and thirty minutes outside Tokyo in Chiba Prefecture, the new temporary stay inside the 100-year-old former Noda Printmaking Workshop offers amenities for up to five guests aligned with a naturalistic Satoyama lifestyle concept.

Image courtesy MUJI/Airbnb

Of course, the whole scheme comes decked out entirely in MUJI products. The brand synergy extends all the way down to toothbrushes, cookware, and other home goods curated from the MUJI product line. For $152 a night, guests also have the choice between pre-packaged MUJI meals and the reasonably-priced home delivery of produce from local farmers. Seasonal tours of the nearby Takahashi Melon Farm are available as well.

Image courtesy MUJI/Airbnb

The brand says it will soon expand the BASE concept to other cities in Japan...

This Japanese housing project utilizes regenerative architecture to support its natural surrounding environment

2023-07-10T18:37:00-04:00

Japanese regenerative architectural design studio tono Inc. has designed a sustainable residence noted for its positive impact on the surrounding environment.

Image: Rui Nishi

Located on the southern Japanese island of Yakushima, Sumu Yakushima applies regenerative architecture to reconceptualize the relationship between human habitation and the natural environment.

Image: Rui Nishi

The project’s design takes a holistic view of the surrounding river basin, mountains, and sea. It combines traditional Japanese civil engineering with contemporary technology.

Image: Wataru Aoyama

The key aims of the design included designing the underground environment, orienting buildings based on a thorough understanding of water and air flows through the landscape, and creating an ongoing connection with nature through architecture.

Image: Rui Nishi

Sumu Yakushima consists of several separate buildings that are organized in a layout that respects the pre-existing nat...

Sou Fujimoto's Ishinomaki Cultural Center offers a poetic space to a community looking to heal and remember

2023-06-22T14:48:00-04:00

Sou Fujimoto Architects has shared photos of the firm’s recent Maruhon MakiArt Terrace design in Ishinomaki, Japan.

The project sought to rebuild an important piece of the region’s cultural infrastructure that was destroyed by the devastating earthquake and tsunami, which claimed the lives of more than 3,000 local residents there on March 11th, 2011.

Responding to a brief that called for a revitalizing centerpiece for the city of 147,000, the design team created a 140,000-square-foot building that plays host to two 1,254- and 300-seat theaters, exhibitions areas, a public gallery, and learning spaces for a variety of different users.

A poetic linear arrangement is created as repeated gable ends combine with alternating “chimney-like” rectangular forms connected by a 170-meter (557-foot) long entrance lobby along the south orientation.

...

Archinect - News

WHY Architecture reveals Yoshimoto Pavilion for Expo 2025

MAD's bubble installation revitalizes a historic house in the Japanese countryside

Japanese homebuilder to demolish condo after backlash for blocking views of Mount Fuji

Lina Ghotmeh announces design for Bahrain's National Pavilion at Expo Osaka 2025

Tohoku University researchers develop real-time stress monitoring materials for aging infrastructure

Fumihiko Maki, a leading icon of modern Japanese architecture, passes away in Tokyo aged 95

BIG's NOT A HOTEL Setouchi weds Danish and Japanese design

Sou Fujimoto's wooden Grand Ring for Expo 2025 Osaka is taking shape

In Japan, abandoned and vacant homes are on the rise

Snøhetta launches national park regeneration project in Japan

Makoto Yamaguchi completes Tokyo gaming headquarters with slanting walls and video game metaphors

Sou Fujimoto shares new photos of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai master plan under construction

Pelli Clarke & Partners​ opens Mori JP Tower, Japan's new tallest building

Fluent in Japanese? Here’s a job opportunity to work on high-end retail projects for Japanese clientele

Trahan Architects unveils U.S. pavilion design for Expo 2025 Osaka-Kansai

Coldefy and Carlo Ratti Associati unveil France’s pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka behind curtain facade

Shigeru Ban and the Voluntary Architects' Network pitch in on earthquake relief efforts in western Japan

Minimalist concrete apartments fill a narrow site in Tokyo, designed by Ryuichi Sasaki Architecture

Toyo Ito donates early-career archive to the Canadian Centre for Architecture

Heatherwick's Azabudai Hills mixed-use development opens in Tokyo

A submerged Japanese library by Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP as a ‘tranquil place’ for reading and rest

OMA's new Toranomon Hills Station Tower opens in Tokyo

Construction begins on Japan’s tallest building, Torch Tower

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Tokyo Imperial Hotel prepares for major expansion

'A home for tea and life': Japanese and Ukrainian influences blend harmoniously in this Kyoto house renovation

Sou Fujimoto designs Pace Gallery Tokyo expansion inside Heatherwick's Azabudai Hills development

Japanese company delivers 3D printed home ‘bought for the price of a car’

MUJI converts 100-year-old Japanese house into tranquil Airbnb stay

This Japanese housing project utilizes regenerative architecture to support its natural surrounding environment

Sou Fujimoto's Ishinomaki Cultural Center offers a poetic space to a community looking to heal and remember

Pelli Clarke & Partners opens Mori JP Tower, Japan's new tallest building