Architecture
World of Design: A Tokyo Exhibit Experiments With the Future of ‘Home’
Japan’s architects and housing industry explore new ideas for dwellings that respond to changes in society, tech and the natural world
What will the future of our home life be like? Part of the answer may be found in Tokyo this summer. The House Vision project, organized by designer and Muji art director Kenya Hara, is holding its second exhibition at a special site in the Aomi district of Tokyo. The show exhibits pavilions created by architects and others in collaboration with companies in the housing industry to explore and present their newest ideas for dwellings.
House Vision 2016: Aomi, Tokyo, through Aug. 28, 2016. More info
House Vision 2016: Aomi, Tokyo, through Aug. 28, 2016. More info
The ground floor serves as a meeting space for the community, and includes a kitchen for preparing tea and meals. The table, tableware and other furniture and accessories are made of Yoshino-sugi cedar, considered the finest in Japan. The second floor is for guests.
The building will be relocated to a site next to the Yoshino River, so it was designed with a long shape for enjoying a view of the water. A room on the second floor provides a magnificent view of the sunrise.
See more photos of the project
The building will be relocated to a site next to the Yoshino River, so it was designed with a long shape for enjoying a view of the water. A room on the second floor provides a magnificent view of the sunrise.
See more photos of the project
2. Deliveries From Outside to Inside
“House With Refrigerator Access From Outside” by Fumie Shibata with Yamato Holdings
A home is a platform that supports our daily lives as we manage people, information, things and everything else in a volume and at a pace greater than ever before, a development that is making intelligent logistics — the integration of information technology and product distribution — increasingly important. In Japan, there are now more express-home-delivery distribution centers than post offices, so for modern home living here, the most important distribution system would have to be home package delivery.
House With Refrigerator Access From Outside is a collaboration between Yamato Holdings, Japan’s largest package-delivery company, and renowned product designer Fumie Shibata. Besides doors that allow people to go in and out, there is one more door linking the inside of the home to outside. This extra door not only receives packages when no one is home, but it also allows the delivery person to deliver perishable foods, cleaning products, medicine and the like from the outside, and allows the recipient to receive them while inside. It also has a refrigerated box for deliveries of refrigerated foods so that they can be taken from the box from inside the home whenever it is convenient.
Security and box controls are consolidated in a control panel. In addition, integrating these controls with the Internet of Things will make it possible to develop new features, such as automatic ordering and replenishing of essential refrigerated goods whenever they run out. In short, the system is one way of exploiting advanced technology to make the flow of things in the homes of the future more convenient and efficient.
See more photos of the project
“House With Refrigerator Access From Outside” by Fumie Shibata with Yamato Holdings
A home is a platform that supports our daily lives as we manage people, information, things and everything else in a volume and at a pace greater than ever before, a development that is making intelligent logistics — the integration of information technology and product distribution — increasingly important. In Japan, there are now more express-home-delivery distribution centers than post offices, so for modern home living here, the most important distribution system would have to be home package delivery.
House With Refrigerator Access From Outside is a collaboration between Yamato Holdings, Japan’s largest package-delivery company, and renowned product designer Fumie Shibata. Besides doors that allow people to go in and out, there is one more door linking the inside of the home to outside. This extra door not only receives packages when no one is home, but it also allows the delivery person to deliver perishable foods, cleaning products, medicine and the like from the outside, and allows the recipient to receive them while inside. It also has a refrigerated box for deliveries of refrigerated foods so that they can be taken from the box from inside the home whenever it is convenient.
Security and box controls are consolidated in a control panel. In addition, integrating these controls with the Internet of Things will make it possible to develop new features, such as automatic ordering and replenishing of essential refrigerated goods whenever they run out. In short, the system is one way of exploiting advanced technology to make the flow of things in the homes of the future more convenient and efficient.
See more photos of the project
3. Transitional Spaces in Expanded Windows
“Inside-Out/Furniture-Room” by Jun Igarashi and Taiji Fujimori with Toto and YKK AP
A window is a two-dimensional interface between interior and exterior. Architect Jun Igarashi wondered what would happen if this interface was extended outward, made into a three-dimensional space and endowed with new functions. Inside-Out/Furniture-Room is his answer. Windows face outside and project outward to become spaces with specific functions: eating, relaxing, sleeping, thinking, bathing. But unlike the room in a typical home, these spaces have the quality of a transitional space between inside and outside.
“Inside-Out/Furniture-Room” by Jun Igarashi and Taiji Fujimori with Toto and YKK AP
A window is a two-dimensional interface between interior and exterior. Architect Jun Igarashi wondered what would happen if this interface was extended outward, made into a three-dimensional space and endowed with new functions. Inside-Out/Furniture-Room is his answer. Windows face outside and project outward to become spaces with specific functions: eating, relaxing, sleeping, thinking, bathing. But unlike the room in a typical home, these spaces have the quality of a transitional space between inside and outside.
And when one goes through a window from inside the home …
… one enters another room. The furniture design for these spaces is the work of furniture designer Taiji Fujimori. Rather than just pieces stuck in a room, the furniture is integrally designed for the space. The result is a livable space that is a curious combination of cavelike enclosure and openness.
See more photos of the project
See more photos of the project
4. Innovations to the Home’s ‘Wet Area’
“Open House With Condensed Core” by Shigeru Ban with Lixil
The plumbing for the bath, toilet, sinks and kitchen, known as a home’s “wet area,” is usually installed under the floor. But plumbing installed in this way is not easy to move, and should the home be renovated, it imposes the limitation of “avoid moving the wet area” on the renovation plan. For a newly built home as well, relegating plumbing to under the floor almost always ultimately determines the location of the wet area.
A system designed by the LixiI corporation addresses this problem by clustering all key water amenities and directing pipe ducts to the ceiling. Wastewater is drawn up and away with a pump. This eliminates the construction and layout limitations imposed by underfloor plumbing, thus making it possible to install wet area equipment anywhere inside the home.
“Open House With Condensed Core” by Shigeru Ban with Lixil
The plumbing for the bath, toilet, sinks and kitchen, known as a home’s “wet area,” is usually installed under the floor. But plumbing installed in this way is not easy to move, and should the home be renovated, it imposes the limitation of “avoid moving the wet area” on the renovation plan. For a newly built home as well, relegating plumbing to under the floor almost always ultimately determines the location of the wet area.
A system designed by the LixiI corporation addresses this problem by clustering all key water amenities and directing pipe ducts to the ceiling. Wastewater is drawn up and away with a pump. This eliminates the construction and layout limitations imposed by underfloor plumbing, thus making it possible to install wet area equipment anywhere inside the home.
For the framework of Open House With Condensed Core, 2014 Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Shigeru Ban chose panels of paper honeycomb board pressed between plywood, a material typically used for shelves and desks. The framework can be completed simply by mounting the house frame to the foundation, and it also creates a spacious interior free of beams and columns. The roof, covered with a zippered, removable waterproof tent curtain, greatly reduces construction time and cost. Glass windows swing up horizontally or tuck away completely in a narrow storage area along the house’s exterior wall to create an interior fully open to the outside. The design is a wonderful pairing of technology that endows wet areas with mobility and Ban’s light, airy style.
5. Printing Patterns From Nature
“Woodgrain House” by Nippon Design Center and Hara Design Institute with Toppan Printing
This home looks like a four-by-four enlarged to a massive size. The facade displays impossibly huge growth rings, but in fact all the wood-grain patterns inside and outside the home are prints. The facade growth rings are a print of a super-high-resolution scan of a Yoshino cedar plank enlarged 20 times.
Toppan Printing’s state-of-the-art gravure print technology achieves exquisitely detailed grain gradation and the realism of polished wood.
The interior includes sensors that detect the physical attributes of visitors and a variety of devices designed to respond interactively to people in the home.
See more photos of the project
“Woodgrain House” by Nippon Design Center and Hara Design Institute with Toppan Printing
This home looks like a four-by-four enlarged to a massive size. The facade displays impossibly huge growth rings, but in fact all the wood-grain patterns inside and outside the home are prints. The facade growth rings are a print of a super-high-resolution scan of a Yoshino cedar plank enlarged 20 times.
Toppan Printing’s state-of-the-art gravure print technology achieves exquisitely detailed grain gradation and the realism of polished wood.
The interior includes sensors that detect the physical attributes of visitors and a variety of devices designed to respond interactively to people in the home.
See more photos of the project
6. A Somewhat Intangible House
“Hiragana-no Spiral House” by Yuko Nagayama with Panasonic
From a broad historical perspective, a house served as a shelter that provided physical protection, and it held all kinds of physical objects for that purpose. But advances in technology, and in information technology in particular, have brought onto the scene homes that enrich living with a wealth of intangible things, perhaps in lieu of a lot of solid objects.
Enter the Hiragana-no Spiral House, enclosed in a circular wall. The interior has almost no physical objects, except for a kitchen island and a square core holding the bathroom below and a bedroom on top. The entire curved wall is a projection screen where one can indulge in movies and videos, music, and the internet via the Internet of Things from anywhere in the home.
The peak of the roof is topped by a “weather cat” sensor that monitors outdoor conditions and quickly notifies people inside of any unusual weather.
“Hiragana-no Spiral House” by Yuko Nagayama with Panasonic
From a broad historical perspective, a house served as a shelter that provided physical protection, and it held all kinds of physical objects for that purpose. But advances in technology, and in information technology in particular, have brought onto the scene homes that enrich living with a wealth of intangible things, perhaps in lieu of a lot of solid objects.
Enter the Hiragana-no Spiral House, enclosed in a circular wall. The interior has almost no physical objects, except for a kitchen island and a square core holding the bathroom below and a bedroom on top. The entire curved wall is a projection screen where one can indulge in movies and videos, music, and the internet via the Internet of Things from anywhere in the home.
The peak of the roof is topped by a “weather cat” sensor that monitors outdoor conditions and quickly notifies people inside of any unusual weather.
7. Rethinking the Rental
“Rental Space Tower” by Sou Fujimoto and Daito Trust Construction
The typical rental apartment complex is a collection of private units equipped with everything an individual needs to live. The focus of these complexes on maximizing private space almost always comes at the expense of common space. Rental Space Tower, an experiment in redefining the rental apartment, takes a different approach.
“Rental Space Tower” by Sou Fujimoto and Daito Trust Construction
The typical rental apartment complex is a collection of private units equipped with everything an individual needs to live. The focus of these complexes on maximizing private space almost always comes at the expense of common space. Rental Space Tower, an experiment in redefining the rental apartment, takes a different approach.
Architect Sou Fujimoto’s approach starts with completely deconstructing private and common elements, and reconstituting them in a towerlike configuration.
While a private unit is pared down to a minimum of bed, storage and toilet, and occupies a space of 75 to 172 square feet (7 to 16 square meters), residents share common spaces and facilities luxurious for a rental apartment complex, such as a home theater, guest room, a spacious bathroom, dining room, library and communally tended garden. Corridors and stairs as well are more than circulation routes and can be used as small gardens.
This clear defining and reintegration of private and common elements go beyond the conventional shared house composed of private rooms and a common living room, and have the potential to create apartment resident communities as vibrant as small towns.
See more photos of the project
While a private unit is pared down to a minimum of bed, storage and toilet, and occupies a space of 75 to 172 square feet (7 to 16 square meters), residents share common spaces and facilities luxurious for a rental apartment complex, such as a home theater, guest room, a spacious bathroom, dining room, library and communally tended garden. Corridors and stairs as well are more than circulation routes and can be used as small gardens.
This clear defining and reintegration of private and common elements go beyond the conventional shared house composed of private rooms and a common living room, and have the potential to create apartment resident communities as vibrant as small towns.
See more photos of the project
8. A Home for the ‘New Nomad’
“Nomad House” by Makoto Tanijiri and Ai Yoshida with Mitsukoshi Isetan
Nomad House was built by the Mitsukoshi Isetan Group, Japan’s largest department store conglomerate, in collaboration with architects Makoto Tanijiri and Ai Yoshida. The home was conceived for the “new nomads,” people who take traveling around their own country and overseas on business for granted.
Dashing from one place to the next, and with friends everywhere, new nomads need a comfortable base where they can spend about half the month. A single space with a concrete floor that resembles traditional packed earth under a large roof, this arrangement of living-dining-kitchen area, bathroom, bedroom, tearoom and more accommodates every daily living situation. A black, wood and earth-tone scheme; raised rooms partitioned with sliding doors; and an engawa, or veranda, to bring in breezes are among the casually borrowed elements of the traditional Japanese home.
“Nomad House” by Makoto Tanijiri and Ai Yoshida with Mitsukoshi Isetan
Nomad House was built by the Mitsukoshi Isetan Group, Japan’s largest department store conglomerate, in collaboration with architects Makoto Tanijiri and Ai Yoshida. The home was conceived for the “new nomads,” people who take traveling around their own country and overseas on business for granted.
Dashing from one place to the next, and with friends everywhere, new nomads need a comfortable base where they can spend about half the month. A single space with a concrete floor that resembles traditional packed earth under a large roof, this arrangement of living-dining-kitchen area, bathroom, bedroom, tearoom and more accommodates every daily living situation. A black, wood and earth-tone scheme; raised rooms partitioned with sliding doors; and an engawa, or veranda, to bring in breezes are among the casually borrowed elements of the traditional Japanese home.
At the center of open-concept living area lie a long concrete kitchen island and a large table. This is the hub for activities and entertaining. Just as the word “nomad” suggests, moving around in this home is as pleasant as strolling the back streets of a new city.
See more photos of the project
See more photos of the project
9. Toward a Japanese Ideal
“Tanada Terrace Office” by Atelier Bow-Wow with Muji
With more empty homes appearing as Japan’s population ages and shrinks, interest is growing in dual urban and rural residences. Tanada Terrace Office is an office building conceived by Muji, a maker of modern home goods and apparel, in collaboration with Atelier Bow-Wow. Muji will move some of its business operations into this building, which will be located in the hamlet of Kamanuma, in Japan’s Chiba Prefecture, where Muji has done business for some time. The company plans to move some of its computer-related work to this farm belt dotted with terraced rice paddies.
The building is constructed to be seismically strong and have ample interior room. To make walls and other building elements easy to repair and customize, designers called for polycarbonate corrugated panel, plywood and other easy-to-get materials. The second floor is for doing computer work; the ground floor is for farm work. This is a place that achieves seikou-udoku (when sunny, work the fields; when rainy, read at home), cherished by many Japanese.
See more photos of the project
“Tanada Terrace Office” by Atelier Bow-Wow with Muji
With more empty homes appearing as Japan’s population ages and shrinks, interest is growing in dual urban and rural residences. Tanada Terrace Office is an office building conceived by Muji, a maker of modern home goods and apparel, in collaboration with Atelier Bow-Wow. Muji will move some of its business operations into this building, which will be located in the hamlet of Kamanuma, in Japan’s Chiba Prefecture, where Muji has done business for some time. The company plans to move some of its computer-related work to this farm belt dotted with terraced rice paddies.
The building is constructed to be seismically strong and have ample interior room. To make walls and other building elements easy to repair and customize, designers called for polycarbonate corrugated panel, plywood and other easy-to-get materials. The second floor is for doing computer work; the ground floor is for farm work. This is a place that achieves seikou-udoku (when sunny, work the fields; when rainy, read at home), cherished by many Japanese.
See more photos of the project
10. Refreshing Water Garden
“Checkerboard Water Garden” by Seijun Nishihata and Kengo Kuma with Sumitomo Forestry
Checkerboard Water Garden, a checkered arrangement of water pools and beautiful maples, was designed by architect Kengo Kuma and assembled with lumber. Its cool, breezy ambience is in keeping with Japanese gardens that create natural scenes in a limited space. If you are tired from walking the grounds in the midsummer heat, take a break and soak your feet in the cool, refreshing water.
See more photos of the project
The exhibition also includes Grand Third Living Room, which presents a new “glamping” style with solar energy generated by Toyota’s new Prius, and One Family Under a Wireless Roof, a pavilion in which viewers use a virtual reality device to see a film on family life in the Internet of Things era.
“Checkerboard Water Garden” by Seijun Nishihata and Kengo Kuma with Sumitomo Forestry
Checkerboard Water Garden, a checkered arrangement of water pools and beautiful maples, was designed by architect Kengo Kuma and assembled with lumber. Its cool, breezy ambience is in keeping with Japanese gardens that create natural scenes in a limited space. If you are tired from walking the grounds in the midsummer heat, take a break and soak your feet in the cool, refreshing water.
See more photos of the project
The exhibition also includes Grand Third Living Room, which presents a new “glamping” style with solar energy generated by Toyota’s new Prius, and One Family Under a Wireless Roof, a pavilion in which viewers use a virtual reality device to see a film on family life in the Internet of Things era.
At the preview of the show, flower master Shuho Sano of the prestigious Ginkaku Jishoji Temple in Kyoto, Japan, conducted a flower offering ceremony.
House Vision director Kenya Hara, left, and coordinator Sadao Tsuchiya say that the project is not only about holding exhibitions. It involves developing many other research programs on the future of home, design and lifestyle in Asian countries including China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, in collaboration with local architects and companies.
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1. A Community House Welcomes Guests From Around the World
“Yoshino-sugi Cedar House” by Airbnb and Go Hasegawa
Airbnb, an online marketplace for short-term rentals, teamed with architect Go Hasegawa and, with the support of Yoshino Town, in Japan’s Nara Prefecture, built Yoshino-sugi Cedar House. This is a new endeavor for Airbnb in that the building isn’t an existing private residence, but rather a newly built home that will be operated by the people of the community.