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…
Journal
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…
Kenzo Tange: Architect Profile and Legacy
Kenzo Tange is one of the central figures of twentieth-century architecture, and arguably the most influential Japanese architect of the postwar era. Working as…
Tadao Ando: Architect Profile and Philosophy
Few living architects are as instantly recognisable as Tadao Ando. His buildings — quiet volumes of smooth, unadorned concrete, cut by precise openings that…
Koi Pond Design: A Practical Guide
A well-made koi pond sits at the heart of many Japanese gardens, but it is as much a piece of engineering as it is…
Elements of a Japanese Garden Explained
A Japanese garden is never an accident. Behind its apparent calm lies a careful arrangement of a small set of recurring components, and the…
Roji: The Japanese Tea Garden Path
The roji is the small garden path that leads to a Japanese teahouse — far more than a route from gate to door, it…
Tsuboniwa: The Japanese Courtyard Garden
A tsuboniwa is a small Japanese courtyard garden — an enclosed pocket of greenery, stone and light set within or between the buildings of…
Zen Gardens (Karesansui) Explained
A Zen garden, known in Japanese as karesansui, is a dry landscape garden composed mainly of carefully raked gravel or sand and a few…
Shakkei: Borrowed Scenery in Japanese Gardens
Shakkei is the sophisticated Japanese garden technique of “borrowed scenery” — incorporating a distant view, such as a mountain, a forest or a temple…
Nagaya: The Japanese Row House Explained
The nagaya was the row house of ordinary people in pre-modern Japan — a long, single-storey or two-storey timber building divided into a series…
Gassho-zukuri: Japan’s Thatched Houses
Gassho-zukuri are the dramatic thatched farmhouses of Japan’s snow country — large timber dwellings whose enormous, steeply pitched roofs are shaped like two hands…