Washi: Japanese Paper in Design and Architecture
Washi is traditional Japanese paper, and it is far more than a writing surface. Strong, translucent and beautifully textured, washi paper has long been…
Category: Japanese Design
Joinery · minimalism · ma 間
Hinoki: Japanese Cypress Wood Explained
Hinoki, the Japanese cypress, is among the most prized building timbers in Japan. Valued for its fine grain, its warm pale colour, its distinctive…
Japanese Carpentry and the Miyadaiku Tradition
Japanese carpentry is among the most sophisticated woodworking traditions in the world, and at its summit stands the miyadaiku — the temple and shrine…
Sashimono: Japanese Furniture Joinery Explained
Sashimono is the Japanese craft of making furniture, boxes and fine objects using precisely cut interlocking joints, assembled without nails. Where Western cabinetmaking has…
Kumiko: Japanese Lattice Woodwork Explained
Kumiko is one of the most refined of all Japanese woodworking crafts: the assembly of intricate wooden lattice from many small, precisely cut pieces,…
Toro: Japanese Stone Lanterns Explained
The Japanese stone lantern, or toro, is one of the most recognisable elements of a Japanese garden. Carved from stone and weathered by years…
Contemporary Japanese Architecture Explained
Contemporary Japanese architecture is among the most admired and influential in the world. Over the past half-century, Japan has produced an extraordinary concentration of…
Toyo Ito: Architect Profile and Philosophy
Toyo Ito is one of the most inventive and influential architects of his generation, admired for an architecture that is fluid, light and constantly…
Metabolism: A Japanese Architecture Movement
Metabolism was one of the most ambitious and original movements in twentieth-century architecture, and it emerged from postwar Japan. Its architects imagined buildings and…
SANAA: Sejima and Nishizawa’s Architecture
SANAA is the collaborative practice of Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, and one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary architecture. Their buildings are…
Shigeru Ban: Architect Profile and Humanitarian Work
Shigeru Ban occupies a distinctive place in contemporary architecture: a designer celebrated equally for technical invention and for a deep humanitarian commitment. He is…
Kengo Kuma: Architect Profile and Philosophy
Kengo Kuma has become one of the most admired architects working today, known above all for his deep commitment to natural materials and his…