The Japanese Design Puzzle: Less Space, More Design

by Ricelli Laplace

In this week's post for ZenVita, Ricelli Laplace examines the Japanese genius for small house design.


Garden and House by Ryue Nishizawa. Photograph by Iwan Baan

With a population of over 120 million people, Japan is one of the 10 most populous countries in the world, but with more than 70% of Japan’s total land mass covered with mountains and forest, the bulk of the population tends to be crowded into large coastal cities. It is for this reason that Japanese architects have become specialists at designing for small areas. The less space you have, the smarter the design should be to make everything fit. What lessons can be learned from this kind of architecture? 

Garden and House by Ryue Nishizawa. Photograph by Iwan Baan

This five story house was designed by Ryue Nishizawa in a commercial district in Tokyo, the densest city in Japan. Located between two gables and just four meters wide, the architect chose a vertical design with almost no walls and a lot of openings connecting the floors, so that light could be well distributed through all levels. The glazed walls give the impression of a spacious place, and the plants and gardens are arranged so as to guarantee privacy. This building is designed as a combined home and workplace for two writers, and although it is located in a busy area, the combination of natural elements and clean design provide a “small paradise” for the dwellers.

House in Abiko by fuse-atelier. Photograph by Ueda Hiroshi

This house in Abiko, Shiba prefecture was designed by fuse-atelier for a young couple that collect furniture as their hobby. Here, the land is wider but has soft ground. Because this would increase the cost of the foundations, the architect chose to reduce the contact area with the ground to 48.54㎡and opted for verticalization. To maximize space, two suspended cubes protrude from the north and south of the house to create an open-plan interior and create the standout feature of the design.

House in Abiko by fuse-atelier. Photograph by Ueda Hiroshi

The main living room is free of partitions and serves as a flexible space for different uses. To increase the flow of daylight without exposing the interior, the walls were shaped in a complex combination of polygonal structures. These were segmented in a continuous sequence that reflects and refracts natural light throughout the house. The shape also gives the impression to those inside that the room is much larger than the exterior suggests.

A house in Kyoto by Shigenori Uoya. Photograph by Javier Montano

When the Japanese architect Shigenori Uoya bought three small adjoining abandoned houses in Kyoto, his main goal was to combine them in a new house as part of a revitalization project. The houses were about a hundred years old, and built mostly of wood and in part with earth. To maintain the original structures Uoya added some new beams. The interior walls were removed, increasing the space and creating an open home loft. This also allows for better ventilation and more natural light to come in. The only internal wall that there is, divides the entrance and the living room. To create the new main building, he joined two of the houses together. On the first floor, we have the main entrance, dining room, kitchen, living room and a beautiful bathroom, which is the only entirely new structure in the project. On the second floor, there is a mezzanine with a bedroom and a corridor that connects it to a third building that serves as a guest house.

These are just a few examples of how Japanese architects employ their creativity to design wonderful houses in places that we might at first glance judge as impossible. More than asking questions, architecture is about creating beauty while resolving problems. Designing for small spaces is like a puzzle and the best architects are able to solve this with aplomb!

Ricelli Laplace is a senior researcher at Kyoto University's Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies.

See also Freedom in Architecture: An Interview with Kyoto Architect Shigenori Uoya
See more works by Shigenori Uoya.

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