Japan Modern: New Ideas for Contemporary Living

by Michiko Rico Nosé, Michael Freeman (Photographer)

This Japanese design book, featuring over 200 stunning photographs, captures the delightful, modern style of the Japanese home.

Japan has always intrigued the world with its deceptively simple blending of architecture, landscape and design. Zen temples, the famous tea ceremony, formal gardens, the use of wood, paper and other materials in the form of screens and floors—all have evolved over the years to create a varied, yet indisputably unique style. Japan Style showcases 40 contemporary homes, many never photographed before, and explores the unique Japanese design in all its manifestations. The book is divided into four chapters— Each home is representative in its own way of the changing face of Japanese interior design and architecture and will be sure to inspire some new design ideas for your own home.

Genres: Japan, Design, Art

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 6, 2000

Reviews

[Kat「キャット」 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really read so much as just borrowed the book via Hoopla Digital to look at the pictures for architectural inspiration. There was more helpful information about the "how" and "why" of the architectural decisions but I didn't read them since I was just reading for the pictures. The styles didn't really resonate with me and you might have a better experience viewing the photographer's actual website (so I guess Hoopla didn't do the eBook justice and my review is a bit biased because of the format.).

[Jason Keenan · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://101booksjapan.blogspot.ca/

The subtitle of Japan Modern may be a bit misleading - these new ideas may no longer be new. The book was first published back in 2000 so many of the homes were products of the late 1990s.

I'm not enough of an architecture buff to know just how much things have moved on - if it all. But I can say that the ideas and homes profiled are worth a look.

Most interesting is the popular drive to use different materials - to veer away from standard interior design products and use things like glass, plywood, concrete. It also seems it was an era of barrelled ceilings.

All in all an interesting glimpse into cutting edge ideas from late in the last century. It leaves me looking for a more up-to-date book with more recent homes.

[Michael Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve long been interested in the Japanese approach to design of all sorts, but especially architecture. Coming from a much different tradition, the solutions to problems and needs for shelter are often very different than those arrived at by architects with Euro-American tastes and training. Some of the examples depicted so beautifully and discussed so shrewdly in this volume are rooted strongly in Japan’s history, such as an old farmhouse relocated to Tokyo and fitted into an urban neighborhood. Others are playful, like the house with a lawn on the peaked roof, watered by a sprinkler system on the ridgepole, and with the courtyard floored in clay roof tiles. There’s a two-story “miniature” house with a footprint not much larger than two parking spaces, but which still manages to be a very comfortable environment for actually living in. And, naturally, there are structures so experimental, you might not realize they were houses if you weren’t told. There are homes in this collection I would love to live in, and others that would probably give me nightmares, but all of them are fascinating.

[Cloay · Rating 4 out of 5]

- available in SG NLB 747.2952 (QT)

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

read and look through for ideas

[Cyndi]

As I was reading this, I kept wondering if I'd read it previously and forgotten or if he reused many of the houses/photos...