Living in Japan - Alex Kerr
The traditional Japanese architecture shows such a certainty of proportions and delicacy in the details that it can hardly be improved. Nonetheless, contemporary Japanese designers and architects keep finding astonishing new interpretations of traditional building forms and designs of high aesthetic value for residents and viewers alike.
Whether it is an immaculately preserved traditional house or a sleek modern apartment: Characteristic of the most successful Japanese living spaces is the preference for cleverly tailored rooms, the reduction to the essentials and a preference for warm materials such as wood, brick and bamboo without showing fear of contact with concrete, steel and the latest building materials.
From a farmhouse with a thatched roof, now inhabited by a Zen priest, to Tadao Ando's experimental 4 × 4 house and Shigeru Ban's conceptual "Shutter House" to a wonderful homage to the Bamboo, this elegant and wonderfully photographed architecture guide shows the diversity of contemporary Japanese living. The volume is supplemented by an address list, if you want to visit the objects presented, and a helpful glossary with key terms such as tatami, shoji or noren.
Product details:
- Hardcover: 512 pages
- ISBN-10: 3836566311
- ISBN-13: 9783836588430
- Size: 226 x 165 mm
- Editor: TASCHEN; Multilingual edition (November 15, 2018)
- Language: English