Dept. of Mini. If New Yorkers are good at dealing with cramped quarters, the Japanese are pros. We crave good pictures of Japanese home ideas and this new book by Azby Brown provides some solace.
The Very Small Home offers a forward by renowned architect, Kengo Kuma, along with detailed tours through a number of small Japanese homes. It provides great photographs and axiometric drawings that show how each house fits together.
You will be surprised (perhaps) at how neat and minimal the Japanese really are, along with how their color schemes differ to the point of discomfort in our eyes. These are not houses you want to live in, so much as houses you want to borrow genetic code from.
There are good, small storage ideas and a very cool glass garage that allows you to see your Porsche at all times. Available directly from Kodansha ($30). MGR
Heh. I think Small House = Large Apartment...
In the same vein as JR... ironically, that shot on the cover seems positively and enviably expansive to me!!!
Yes - poor choice of a cover picture for a book on small homes. I realize it might be small for an entire house, but definitely dwarfs the entries for the smallest, coolest apartment contest
Any other book recommendations for small space design?
to see what apartment interiors really look like, see Tokyo - A Certain Style, by Kyoichi Tsuzuki.
Having lived in Tokyo for a decade, I can tell you that most Japanese homes are cramped boxes with no personality at all. The books about Japanese homes show just the high-end, well thought out spaces that probably 99% of Japanese do not live in. Much more common is an average of 600 square feet stuffed with cheap particle board furniture and overhead flourescent lighting in every room -- including bedrooms -- for a family of four.
Having said all that, when the Japanese put their minds to it, they are experts at working in small spaces. This is most evident in their gardens, which tend to be creative and lovely spaces.
I thought this might have been posted as a 'slap on the wrist' for suggesting Tokyo Style in another posting - this 'Small Home' book seems to be far more inspiring, but I agree that it also is a departure from the truth of what really is happening in the housing crunch of most of urban Japan. But still, if you walk through some of the trendier parts of Tokyo, like Aoyama, you will see these homes popping up. They are the rule, rather than the exception, for new homes in urban areas. If you go out to the suburbs, you will find more and more construction that needs to be levelled and redone, rather than preserved. The traditional Japanese home is we imagine it is a rare creature and very hard to maintain.
I also lived a while in Japan, but it was the countryside. I was very lucky to have enjoyed visiting beautiful traditional homes. There you can see the design that was created out of necessity and a respect for nature. It almost seems like the homes were naturally or organically evolved, rather than rigidly planned. I trained with a calligrapher, Mr. Tamaki, who had a small house. It was a beautiful combination of traditional building and materials - small, thoughtful rooms that worked perfectly. It was at the base of a small mountain, near an ocean inlet, and all of his sunlight came indirectly as it bounced off the mountainside into his home. When you looked out the window, you saw only this wall of rocks and soil and the various plants that would call the mountainside home. There was a certain amount of letting go, letting nature help you make your environment.
I would love a book suggestion for this type of humble, functional Japanese home. Any suggestions out there? I think if you absorb these ideas of creating a space that works for your lifestyle and for the world around you, it will help you plan a much better space, no matter what your style is.
I looke don Amazon and this book looks promising - has anyone seen this? -
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0804832625/campusicom/ref%3Dnosim/102-1806402-9100919
I searched on Amazon and this book looks promising - has anyone seen this? -
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0804832625/campusicom/ref%3Dnosim/102-1806402-9100919
And here is another book that seems to explain why Japanese homes have the structure they have. When I was in college in Japan, I took a course on Japanese design. The teacher showed us the most interesting examples of how traditional Japanese trays and accessories were designed. They were made in direct relation to the user. Trays were made no wider than the width from one shoulder to the other, and everything was made in size and depth to fit on the tray and function with all of the other objects, like bowls and cups, that would be on it. Japanese houses were also built in this way. The house was the tray, and the inhabitants were the cups and bowls, housed within the shoulder-span of the surrounding nature.
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0804814929/ref=pd_sim_b_3/102-1806402-9100919?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance
For an unintentionally humorous look at small homes, check out this LA Times article. One of the "small" homes featured is 3,400 sq. ft. I'm not sure if I've ever even been in a home that big!
www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-space28apr28,0,7687294.story?coll=la-home-home
Yeah, you could fit 34.7 of my homes in that L.A. times home... (7x14 feet, baby!)
BUT where can one find japanese or even Asian inspired furniture in NYC at a reasonable price? I've seen a lot of places that cater to the collector and nothing for the average NYC resident who wants to use the ideas without paying $$$$.
Any suggestions?
According to Alex Kerr in his "Dogs and Demons'" Japan's "modern" homes and apartments really have the structure and look that they do because of VERY strict "allowable floor-to-area ratio (FAR)" regulations and footprint quotas that have remained unchanged since the 1950s. That is why they tend to look rather boxy and it is more common to see stairways and air conditioning units on the outside of the building (as this is a way around the law).
I saw this book while I was living in Japan and found it kind of inspiring:
http://www.amazon.com/Space-Japanese-Solutions-Michael-Freeman/dp/0789310651/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b/104-7888491-5671166