Tag - japanese-architecture

 
 

JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE

Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 21, 2021
Philip Jodidio: ‘A willingness to transgress and a desire to be extremely innovative’
u2018Contemporary Japanese Architecture' author Philip Jodidio discusses the past and future significance of Japanese architecture and his career as an art/architecture critic and editor.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jul 11, 2021
‘Impressions of Japanese Architecture’: A sense of discovery toward the traditional arts
Ralph Adams Cram's focus on traditional architecture, with design principles still relevant today, explains why his book “Impressions of Japanese Architecture,” first published in 1905, has stood the test of time.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Apr 29, 2018
Architect Fumihiko Maki: Finding intimacy in the city
Fumi Maki talks about a landmark book of Japanese architecture, 'City with a Hidden Past,' and the virtues of Tokyo's inner havens.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Apr 28, 2018
'Japanese Architecture as a Collaborative Process': A must-read to understand Japanese architecture
Dana Buntrock's fieldwork highlights the collaborative nature of architecture, manufacturing and construction in Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jul 30, 2016
New inn style: Tokyo's first luxury ryokan
There are seasonal ikebana arrangements, tatami-mat flooring, kimono-style outfits for guests and a steaming hot onsen spring water bath.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 12, 2016
Gabriel Orozco: always ahead of the game
Gabriel Orozco has returned to Tokyo. Following his retrospective "Inner Circles" at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in early 2015, "Visible Labor" at Rat Hole Gallery is a collection of new works that explore Orozco's classic themes of the city, transportation and games, revealing influences of his recent stay in Japan. The bright basement space plays host to toy Ferraris, go (strategy game) sets, Buddha imagery, geometric collages and dark wooden beams — making a city-themed board game of the main gallery.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 17, 2015
'Gabriel Orozco: Visible Labor'
This show runs concurrent with Gabriel Orozco's solo show at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, his first large-scale exhibition in Japan. During his recent stay here, Orozco created a new series of works titled "Visible Labor," featuring pieces inspired by Japanese architecture and crafts.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 7, 2015
Aomori's moving castle and other architectural tales
Once every century, Hirosaki in Aomori Prefecture experiences an unusual event — the Hirosaki Moving Castle Project — when the city relocates an entire castle using manpower only.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 3, 2015
'Architecture Since 3.11'
Nov. 7-Jan. 31
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 10, 2015
Saitama's 'Little Edo' is big on Japan's colorful history
As my smartphone clock flashes from 11:59 a.m. to 12 p.m., I watch the visitors to Kawagoe, in Saitama Prefecture wipe the sweat from their foreheads and direct their attention toward a more primitive form of time keeping — the Toki no Kane (Bell of Time) tower in the middle of the town square.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Oct 3, 2015
Don't be green about the charm of tatami
When we were thinking of buying a condominium, we visited several old danchi — apartments built by Japan's former public housing corporation — because they were cheap and, we thought, easy to renovate. One of the units we inspected had bedroom floors made of tatami mats, and we wondered if we could replace them with real wood floors. The realtor told us that we probably couldn't. The tatami was mandated by the condo's management association because it acted as soundproofing. In fact, he didn't think we'd be able to install real wood floors anywhere in the apartment, because other than tatami only a certain type of sound-proofed laminate flooring was allowed in the building.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Aug 29, 2015
Keith Haring's urban art finds apt lodgings in Japan's countryside
If someone were to tell you that the largest private collection of New York street and pop artist Keith Haring's work is stashed in some of Japan's lushest mountainous countryside, and if you went to visit it, you could stay in a Keith Haring-inspired boutique hotel, you would probably think they were joking.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Aug 29, 2015
Kitagawara shapes a new Kobuchizawa Station
Since 2011, Tokyo University of the Arts and the city of Hokuto in Yamanashi Prefecture have been working together to redesign its Kobuchizawa Station building as part of an initiative to breathe new life into the rural area.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Aug 22, 2015
Kaoru Mende's bright ideas on darkness
'Whenever I see the alcove of a tastefully built Japanese room, I marvel at our comprehension of the secrets of shadows, our sensitive use of shadow and light," wrote the prominent modern novelist Junichiro Tanizaki in his 1933 essay on Japanese aesthetics, "In Praise of Shadows."
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 27, 2015
Kou-an glass teahouse gives tradition clarity
Tokujin Yoshioka is a familiar name in the design world, but it's hard to say which discipline he belongs to. His oeuvre spans products, including a mobile phone, watch and chandelier; architecture and interiors, such as his Rainbow Church (2010, 2013) and Swarovski Ginza (2008) display; even artworks like his "Rainbow Chair" (2007) that went on show at the 2014 Venice Biennale. He is probably best-known for a functional artwork, the "Honey-pop" (2000) chair — a 1-cm thick wad of 120 sheets of paper that when pulled apart like a concertina reveals a honeycomb-structured chair.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
May 30, 2015
Home in on Japan's postwar architecture
In the 1960s, architect Kazuo Shinohara made a famous comment in Shinkenchiku magazine: "Residence is art. ... Residence should be outside of what is believed as architecture, it should rather be considered as a form of art, like paintings and sculptures." A bold statement considering that unlike paintings or sculptures, function is usually of the priority of architecture, and that most buildings cannot be moved.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
May 30, 2015
'Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings' reveals intricacies of Edo Period architecture and interiors
"Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings" was first published in 1886, less than two decades after the Meiji Restoration, a time when Japan reopened itself to the world. But the same openness that allowed Morse to document Japanese architecture as a living tradition would soon transform the urban landscape beyond recognition.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Feb 12, 2015
Tange's indispensable contacts
If you've ever had the opportunity to stay at the Park Hyatt Tokyo hotel in the Shinjuku Park Tower — I haven't, but I know someone who has — you'll know how looking down from the 52nd floor on the silent city from the hermetic calm of a guest room is mesmerizing. Sofia Coppola used this to good effect in the film "Lost in Translation," in which her character Charlotte has trouble giving up the safe and culturally neutral environment of the hotel for the confusion and unpredictability of the streets of Tokyo.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jan 30, 2015
Japan's fertile architectural evolution
Today, Japanese contemporary architecture enjoys an outstanding international reputation, but the story of its emergence to a position of such accomplishment and acclaim has not yet been told comprehensively. A pair of exhibitions at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa presents a postwar history of Japanese architecture — "Japan Architects 1945-2010" — and the tendencies that are gathering momentum now and will shape the future — "Architecture since 3.11."
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jan 30, 2015
Building social change after the earthquake
In 2011, the devastation of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami forced Japanese architects to rethink their understanding of architecture at a fundamental level — to consider closely society's systems and the affect buildings had on not only the life of, but also the psyche of the people.

Longform

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