Magazine
This public building in the city of Toyokawa houses a variety of functions — community center, library, children's center, city hall — behind a patterned facade that is as welcoming to residents as the light-filled spaces inside. Architect Yasuyuki ITO answered a few questions about the...
This house, located in a part of a Japan with a lot snowfall, was designed to be resilient outside and amenable to daily life inside. The architects at Eureka answered a few questions about the recently completed Silver Water Cabin.
The Kyoto University of Art & Design's new Botenkan, as it's called, serves primarily as the home for the school's administrative functions, but a plaza atop the building turns it into a social hub for students. Architect Waro Kishi, a professor at KUAD, answered some questions about the...
Having been rebuilt and restored many times, the Kanda Myojin Shrine is one of the oldest in Japan, with a history of 1,300 years. The shrine is located in central Tokyo and is now accompanied by the new EDOCCO, Edo Culture Complex. NOMURA Co., Ltd. explained their intent behind the complex's...
This civic hall in Kamaishi, Japan, that replaces the one destroyed in the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami offers numerous cultural venues marked by flexibility. Most striking is the glass-roofed "People's Plaza" that hosts outdoor performances and other events. Aat + makoto yokomizo...
A "floating" wall is the most distinctive feature in KEN Architects' design of a house in Hohu, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Far from arbitrary, the wall relates to the public/private nature of the garden behind it, as architect Kenichi Kohmura explains in response to a few of our questions.
Late last year, TOTO, the world-famous toilet manufacturer from Japan, opened its Indonesian headquarters inside a brand new office building on Letjen S. Parman Street in Central Jakarta. Field Four Design Office answered a few questions about their design of TOTO's showroom and offices.
The Tokyo area where the historic Hotel Chinzanso is located is known as Camellia Hill, in reference to the wild camellia flowers that bloom there. ("Chinzanso" actually means "guest house on Camellia Hill.") The latest addition to the hotel's centuries-old gardens is a shrine topped by a roof...