NEW YORK, NY.- The new book by gestalten reveals how Japanese homes, understated yet radical, show that even the everyday can be transformed into something unexpected.
A House in Japan - Lessons in Living is exploring how a thoughtfully designed home can fundamentally transform how we live. In a culture shaped by precision and restraint, domestic projects become sites of quiet experimentation. These houses prioritize clarity over excess, intent over display. Rigorous yet flexible, they adapt to daily rhythms while proposing fresh ways of living. For debates around sustainable density, emotional well-being in confined spaces, and the future of flexible living, A HOUSE IN JAPAN is essential: it offers tangible, enduring architectural solutions that prove ingenuity is born from constraint.
The book is a showcase of unbridled creativity, presenting dwellings born from the constraints of ultra-compact sites and dense urban surroundings. These are not mere buildings, but grand canvases for life that are designed to bring us back to the present moment. Featured projects demonstrate the radical potential of restraint:
● LOVE2 HOUSE (Takeshi Hosaka, Tokyo): A compact, 203-square-foot dwelling that challenges what is essential for living. Its twin concrete shells open toward the sky, channeling light and embodying the infiniteness of small things"
● House with Membrane Roof (Yuko Nagayama & Associates): Faced with a tightly packed urban site, the architects engineered a flexible, double-membrane roof that transforms the interior into a light-filled refuge, allowing the client to experience the feeling of camping within the city.
● A Cat Tree House (Tan Yamanouchi & AWGL, Kamakura): A multi-level residence built around an atrium of 23 staggered levels. It serves as an architecture of empathy, designed from the perspective of the owners' two cats, ensuring comfort for both humans and felines alike.
● Building Frame of the House (IGArchitects, Tokyo): This compact, 646-square-foot home is a single, fluid room defined not by walls, but by seven floor plates that stagger and float. This unconventional vertical arrangement transforms the small space into an experience of vastness.
No matter how fast the world moves today, the spirit of the Japanese home remains timeless—informed by tradition, deeply connected to nature, and grounded in the enduring idea that real meaning is found in the experiences that architecture orchestrates.
gestalten is an international publishing house collaborating and engaging with the world’s most interesting creatives to document and anticipate vital movements in architecture and interiors, design and fashion, escape and mobility, travel, food, and beverage, as well as visual culture. Exploring creativity in every form, gestalten is known and loved by millions around the globe for its unique lens across print and digital mediums. gestalten also publishes illustrated books for children through its imprint Little Gestalten.
