Archinect - News

Watch Riken Yamamoto's remarks from the 2024 Pritzker Prize ceremony

2024-11-14T15:35:00-05:00

Video from this year’s Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate Riken Yamamoto’s May lecture and award presentation ceremony in Chicago has been shared with Archinect to celebrate the 46th edition of architecture’s most important individual honor.

The documentary-style film provides a behind-the-scenes look at the festivities, featuring commentary from Norman Foster and Yale School of Architecture dean Deborah Berke, among several others.

Berke tells us "I think the most important thing about it is how subtle it is and how willing he is as an architect to let the buildings be background in order to foreground human interaction" in deference to Yamamoto's deep understanding of both relational aesthetics and the art of the urban form.

Video courtesy of The Hyatt Foundation/The Pritzker Architecture Prize

More commentary from jurors Barry Bergdoll, Stephen Breyer, André Corrêa do Lago, Kazuyo Sejima, and Wang Shu provided an additional spotlight on Yamamoto’s legacy of social advocacy th...

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.

Junya Ishigami receives the 13th Kiesler Prize in Vienna

2024-06-18T18:38:00-04:00

Junya Ishigami, the Japanese architect and creative force behind his country's continued dominance on the international scene, has accepted his 2024 Austrian Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts via a special awards ceremony held yesterday in Vienna.

The 2019 Serpentine Pavilion designer and founder of Tokyo's Junya Ishigami + Associates was recognized by the Prize's jury this January for a boundary-pushing approach that has largely and by many measures contributed to contemporary architecture's embrace of more ethereal and open public space-oriented designs while earning his reputation as the “Master of the Void.”

House & Restaurant, Ube/Japan, 2022, photograph © junya.ishigami+associates

"Junya Ishigami is one of the most interesting architects of the younger generation. Both his persistent attitude and his visionary work make him the perfect Kiesler Prize winner," Kiesler Foundation president Elke Delugan-Meissi said prior to his acceptance. "His poetically sculp...

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...

Inspired by Japanese architecture, Pelli Clarke & Partners opens adaptive reuse sake brewery in Hyde Park, New York

2024-05-02T13:54:00-04:00

Pelli Clarke & Partners and Jun Mitsui & Associates have shared photos of the recently completed Asahi Shuzo’s Dassai Blue Brewery project in Hyde Park, New York. The adaptive reuse of a former grocery store into the first American home for the popular Japanese brand pays homage to the naturalism of its native country while mirroring the “dance” of fermentation.

Image courtesy Pelli Clarke & Partners

Inside, 55,000 square feet of space for rice washing, Koji-making, drying, steaming, and other parts of the fermentation process are enabled without any major alterations being made to the building’s footprint. Production flows counterclockwise to accommodate a volume of approximately 140,000 cases annually.

Image courtesy Pelli Clarke & Partners

Elements from traditional Japanese architecture feature throughout, and the exterior is also rendered in the same character, beset by a materials palette led by Yakisugi...

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...

Seven defining projects by the 2024 Pritzker Prize winner Riken Yamamoto

2024-03-05T17:40:00-05:00

This morning’s announcement of Riken Yamamoto as the 53rd official laureate of the Pritzker Prize has come with praise for the Beijing-born Japanese designer whose community-minded approach to architecture has impacted countless lives. Many outside of Asia were surprised by his selection, which is being received as a win for rational design principles, relational aesthetics, and the democratization of architecture.

He is particularly well-known for placing emphasis on the boundaries and periphery spaces inherent in his designs, as well as for having an equal competency in transfusing landscapes within their natural environments and urban context. To date, completed works include projects in Japan, Switzerland, China, and the Republic of Korea.

“Yamamoto has expanded the toolbox of the profession towards both the past and the future to be able to give each time, in very different modes and at very different scales, the most pertinent response to the challenges of both the built envi...

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...

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...

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...

Atelier Bow-Wow’s first U.S. home features a large ‘umbrella’ roof in the Sierra Nevadas

2023-10-05T16:40:00-04:00

The acclaimed Japanese firm Atelier Bow-Wow has completed its first and only home built in the United States. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas in California, the Mountain House sits as a “meticulously designed and thoughtfully crafted residential structure” in sixty acres of forest, according to the property’s realtors, Sotheby's.

Image credit: Nick Swartzendruber for Sotheby’s International Realty

The home sits on the site of a 19th-century gold mine which features wagon roads, trails, and seasonal streams. For the building’s design, Atelier Bow-Wow pursued a philosophy that “honors the environment, manifesting in a structure that treads lightly on the land and resources while maximizing its connection to a breathtaking landscape.”

Image credit: Kat Alves for Sotheby's International Realty

The entrance-facing facade is designed to be unassuming a...

'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...

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...

Kim Kardashian and Tadao Ando meet on Palm Springs dream home design

2023-04-07T16:38:00-04:00

Apparent Japanese architecture aficionado Kim Kardashian recently traveled to the country to meet with Pritzker winner Tadao Ando, according to an Instagram post made by the celebrity mogul Thursday.

Ando is designing a private residence for Kardashian in the Palm Springs area, the details of which were first uncovered by Vogue magazine last year. In her post, Kardashian implied its construction was set to break ground soon, though she was sparse on other design details aside from sharing what appears to be a rendering of a grey cast concrete structure that more closely resembles a contemporary art museum than a home.

Ando has designed several celebrity residences over the years, including a $75 million compound for fashion designer Tom Ford and the Malibu home currently owned by Kardashian’s troubled ex-husband following a $57.3 million post-divorce splurge. Kardashian is also reportedly in talks with Kengo Kuma for another vacation residence at an undisclosed American lakeside loc...

Junya Ishigami 'excavates' concrete cave for restaurant and residence in Japan

2022-09-23T13:56:00-04:00

Junya Ishigami + Associates has completed a residence and restaurant for a French restauranter in the city of Ube, Japan. Asked by the client for a space that "has to look as if it has been there and will continue to be there for the longest time," Ishigami responded with a cave-like structure punctured by three courtyards.

Photograph ©︎ YASHIRO PHOTO OFFICE

Photograph ©︎ junya.ishigami+associates

The scheme’s construction saw the site excavated to shape an inverse volume of the final design. Concrete was then poured in situ and the surrounding earth excavated further to reveal the final form. Finally, glazing was fixed to external threshold arches to form interior spaces.

Photograph ©︎ junya.ishigami+associates

Construction process diagram ©︎ junya.ishigami+associates

"When the structure was excavated after concrete solidification, it was caked with mud," Ishagimi recalls in a reflection for the Japanese magazine GA Houses translated by Fraze Craze. "With the range in geology, the natu...

Sou Fujimoto’s new resort concept offers guests a revelatory experience of form and philosophy

2022-08-02T19:15:00-04:00

A few months removed from their grand House of Music debut in Budapest, Sou Fujimoto Architects has just unveiled concept renderings and a project website of an undulating coastal resort design on Okinawa’s Ishigaki Island for the Japanese hospitality brand NOT A HOTEL.

The circular home concept includes four bedrooms arranged around an open-air combined living/dining room that includes an island kitchen and panoramic views of the ocean. Its green roof gives way to an internal courtyard that is defined by a 12-meter (40-foot) infinity pool and framed by a singular symbol tree. The construction will equal more than 3,000 tsubos, or about 106,000 square feet, upon its completion, which is scheduled for next summer.

Image courtesy Sou Fujimoto Architects

As mentioned in the project announcement, the design’s near-poetic expression of natural geometries and landscaping is conducive to improved circulation throughout while simultaneously breaking the indoor-outdoor threshold in a refresh ...

Toshiko Mori on style

2022-03-25T18:29:00-04:00

My architectural hero is Lina Bo Bardi. She was an amazing person. She was connected to society, communities, and construction crews. And also the fact that she's originally Italian, and established an identity in a place different from her place of origin (Brazil), resonated for me coming from Japan and establishing my practice in the United States. Navigating that territory, not only being a woman, but being a migrant as well.

A very nuanced interview with Toshiko Mori. "The former Chair of Harvard's graduate architecture program deems signature style irrelevant, favoring a versatile research-based approach. Beyond the load bearing structures of a building, Mori's examination of material matter excavates the complexities and contradictions of modern human phenomena."

Kim Kardashian taps Tadao Ando and Kengo Kuma for post-divorce vacation homes

2022-02-11T12:30:00-05:00

At present, Pritzker Prize–winning architect Tadao Ando is building Kim’s Palm Springs home, which she describes as “concrete, gray-toned, and really zen,” while Kengo Kuma, who designed the National Stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as well as LVMH’s Japan headquarters, is creating a glass-and-wood lake house for her in an undisclosed location, where Kim travels every Fourth of July.

The Palm Springs home and new Kuma design will offer some competition to the pricey portfolio her ex-husband has been building with his recent $57.3 million acquisition of an Ando-designed Malibu home that was custom-built for investment manager Richard Sachs in 2013.

Tadao Ando Interview with Archinect: 20 Minutes with a Master

Kardashian, who visited Ando's Chichu Art Museum in her past life with the Donda rapper, recently acquired ownership of the couple’s minimalist Hidden Hills home in the fall as part of the stipulation for their now-finalized divorce The Vogue cover girl credited the design process and collaboration with Axel Vervoodt with instigating a “love affair with architecture, specifically Japanese” as she spoke with the magazine’s Jen Wang about her SKIMS side hustle and new redefining role as the face of Balenciaga.

The Proust Questionnaire: Kengo Kuma

Sou Fujimoto Architects revitalizes centuries-old hotel in Maebashi

2021-04-30T17:56:00-04:00

A vacant hotel that had been in operation for 300 years until its closure in 2008 has been resurrected by Sou Fujimoto Architects.

Situated in the center of Maebashi, a city about two hours northwest of Tokyo, Shiroiya Hotel’s revamp is part of a wider rejuvenation of the city, a plan spearheaded by Maebashi native and businessman, Hitoshi Tanaka. He has been working to push the city in a more creative direction that is interesting and fun for young entrepreneurs. Aside from the hotel, Tanaka has helped develop one of Maebashi’s fading shopping streets by adding an acclaimed craft pasta shop and cake shop. He is also active in the city’s local politics.

Photo by Shinya Kigure

Tanaka bought the Shiroiya Hotel in 2014, and rather than demolishing the existing 1970s-era, concrete structure, he sought to revitalize the old hotel and make it a landmark destination for Maebashi. Having worked with Sou Fujimoto Architects in the past, Tanaka enlisted the group to bring his vision to life....

CASE-REAL designs a steel-clad minimalist house in Tokyo

2020-12-02T13:33:00-05:00

CASE-REAL has completed a new residence in Tokyo, Japan. The two-story wood-frame home sits in a residential sector in the city center and contrasts the surrounding structures with its metallic exterior, made of galvanized steel.

From the street, the home displays a gridded system of the galvanized panels leading its owners into an entry court behind a property boundary wall at the street-side sidewalk.

The ground-level includes the garage, storage, master bedroom, and a restroom. At the second level, living and dining, kitchen, an office, bedroom, and outdoor terrace make up the primary living areas.

Louvers of the same galvanized steel at the exterior cover the semi-outdoor terrace, creating an accessory space for dining and reflection. The interior tones are a minimalistic white and brown, coming from the natural wood throughout.

Hidden Noguchi ceiling found at a U-Haul St. Louis store

2020-08-06T15:52:00-04:00

An undulating lobby ceiling that Isamu Noguchi sculpted in the 1940s has emerged at a U-Haul branch in St. Louis, two decades after it was hidden by partitions and dropped ceiling panels. Noguchi designed the feature, known as a lunar landscape, for the building’s original owner, the American Stove Company.

The ceiling was discovered back in 2015 and immediately many began to advocate for its preservation. The New York Times reports David Conradsen, the St. Louis Museum of Art's decorative arts and design curator said that experts had contemplated removing the sculpture to transfer it to the museum, but concluded that it would be destroyed in the removal process.

Japanese design team create 'Cat Tower Mansion'

2020-07-14T11:40:00-04:00

The initial idea of residential construction firm Mitsubishi Estate Residence, the Cat Tower Mansion was realized by a team led by Japanese-based architect Akiko Ishimaru, who also happens to be a cat-lover. The multi-story structure is designed to exist within the interior of a home. The "ground floor" contains the bathroom, fit with a litter box for the cat, and every other level holds its own purpose. The second floor is a garden lounge; the third is the living room; and the top level is a soft sleeping space.

EYRC's Takashi Yanai and Patti Rhee unveil their Japanese and California Modernism-inspired family home

2020-04-16T11:52:00-04:00

Husband and wife duo, Takashi Yanai and Patti Rhee, both partners at EYRC, have unveiled their recently completed redesign of their family home, the Kingsland Residence. Takashi leads the residential studio at EYRC and Patti heads the commercial studio. The couple's home is located in Mar Vista, between Culver City and Venice, CA. Mixing both Californian and Japanese modernism, the design approach was to bring the outside in.

Photo by Stephen Schauer

Photos by Paul Vu

By painting the home matte black, more focus was brought to the exterior landscape and gardens, which were designed my Terremoto. Regarding the collaboration with Terremoto, Takashi said, "I wanted the exterior spaces to be a place of repose, and the focal point of your experience when indoors especially in the dining room. The landscape design is a mash-up of a Japanese garden with California appropriate plants." Inside the home, an expansive sliding door frames the backyard area, connecting the interior to the outdoor ...

Nendo-designed 'Stairway House' offers connected living for three generations

2020-04-06T12:15:00-04:00

Japanese-based firm Nendo has completed a novel three-story two-family home in Tokyo. With three generations of the same family sharing the space, the living quarters for the older couple is situated on the 1st floor, while the 2nd and 3rd levels house the younger couple and their child.

Spanning from the front yard ground level to the peak of the third floor is an expansive "stairway-like" structure that penetrates through the building. Offering separation with a degree of preserved connectedness.

Inside the stairway are usable spaces such as bathrooms and an actual usable staircase. Concrete was used for the exterior steps while steel makes up the interior steps.

The south elevation, which contains the protruding stairway, offers full-height glazing, allowing natural daylight into the home while further solidifying the continuous effect of the extruded steps.

Hyde + Hyde-designed residence embraces Japanese culture

2020-02-04T17:18:00-05:00

This Hyde + Hyde-designed home takes inspiration from its residents' Japanese culture. Called Utsuroi House, the dwelling captures an appreciation for timeless architecture through balance and geometric symmetry. 'Utsuroi' is a Japanese spatial concept meaning "a gradual and inevitable change from one state to another." This work of architecture seeks to introduce a "conscious and orchestrates spatial sequence" that guides its inhabitants fluidly through the home.

Elevation.

Concept sketch.

Sitting atop a high hill on the outskirts of the city of Bath, England, panoramic views of the cascading hills of the country surround the dwelling. With efficiency and low environmental impact in mine, the home will be constructed from prefabricated timber.

Approach view.

Rear deck.

Concept sketch.

This wooden house in Japan stretches 50 meters long

2020-01-27T11:57:00-05:00

Overlooking vast rice fields, scattered farmhouses, and mountains, sits a quaint wooden residence designed by Japan-based Motoki Ishikawa Architect & Associates Inc.. Located in Yokote, Japan, the design challenge came in addressing the area's dynamic climate where long winters invite heavy snowfall and short summers bring high humidity.

Working within a strict budget, the architects decided to construct the home in a linear fashion, dividing up the space based on the owner's programmatic needs. The garage, sunroom, and main residence, all occupy a space of the same width. Each area of the home is divided by a sunroom, allowing connectivity to the exterior and a buffer between living spaces.

Moreover, while considering the feasibility of construction, the design team composed the home’s columns and beams in identical dimensions with a goal of streamlining its production.

First photos of Kengo Kuma-designed Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Tokyo

2019-02-28T14:36:00-05:00

After announcing the launch of its Reserve Roastery in Tokyo back in 2016, Starbucks has now given a look inside the Kengo Kuma-designed space. The store is Starbucks’ fifth Reserve Roastery, and the second time that the concept has opened outside of North America, following the Milan location launched last year.

The four-story coffee temple in Tokyo's Nakameguro neighborhood opened to the caffeine-deprived morning crowds at 7 a.m. today.

"The Tokyo Roastery is the only Starbucks Roastery location designed in collaboration with a local architect from the ground up," explains the project description.

Image: Starbucks

"The exterior was brought to life in collaboration with renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. Envisioned by Liz Muller, Starbucks chief design officer and lead designer for all five Roasteries globally, the Roastery highlights the work of local craftsmen and women to create an enchanting destination for coffee exploration and discovery."

Image: Starbucks

"Upon entering the Roastery, customers are greeted by the world’s largest Starbucks Roastery coffee cask, four stories and more than 55 feet of blush-tinted copper adorned with hand-crafted copper cherry blossoms, which changes hues throughout the day in different lights. The expansive cask was built using the technique of tsuchi...