I'm home

Minami Boso city, in Chiba prefecture is situated at the extreme southern tip of the Boso peninsula in Kanto district. The S residence can be found after going up the steep slope surrounded by fields. There is a commanding panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean from this hill, which faces a cliff full of greens.
The owners, the S couple, asked architect Andrea Hikone to design their house. Andrea wanted to maximize the characteristics of the land and let the house have different expressions, facing the ocean and the cliff respectively. The east side frames the scenery with the roof and the floor, which slant toward the ocean. The focal point is the horizon. On the west side, the wall was established slanted along the cliff so that one's line of sight extends up to the sky with a skylight at the very top.
In keeping with the theme of the house, the living/dining room and the bedroom on the 2nd floor were made into one room. A storage cabinet painted in a traditional Japanese deep purple "Nasukon", works loosely as a partition. As for the wooden door that separates the bedroom from the den, art paper called "Karakami" which is used for decorating Fusuma doors (Japanese sliding doors), is cut in circles and pasted.
On the 1st floor, individual rooms like a storage room and a bathroom are consolidated and a picture window framing the ocean is placed at the entrance. This artwork-like window blends in well with small ethnic objects that the wife collects. A comfortable residence that has a beautiful panoramic view and ethnic elements was created.

At the N residence in Kyoto prefecture in the Kinki region, the courtyard is the center of the residence. An architect, Kenji Tagashira designed this house and came up with a layout plan where the courtyard can be seen from anywhere in the house, maximizing the characteristics of the land using different elevations. On the other hand, a garden designer, Toshiya Ogino, who designed the courtyard, has skillfully incorporated the sloped land created by the difference in elevation and has reproduced scenery that resembles a Japanese field.
On the hilly part of the courtyard, lava stones and Sasa veitchii f. minor Rehd are placed as an earth retaining method. In between these, grand cover plants are planted that exude a mellow atmosphere. Meanwhile, the courtyard, the courtyard except the hilly part, was made to be a green lawn at the owner's request so that the children can play in the garden in the future. This beautiful contrast of two gardens combined adds color to the residence.
The inside of the house utilized the difference of elevation by making the rooms connected by split levels. To have a feel of stretch, partitions are minimized while at the same time, having split levels allows people to sense each other's presence while still being able to maintain a good distance from each other. The courtyard green looks wonderful in the simple, modern space, which has white as a basic tone.

The residence is not simply a box. It functions for the first time only when there are residents and a garden. The word home in Japanese signifies a strong connection between the actual homes as well as a garden, especially because the Japanese kanji characters for "home" also include the character for "garden". This applies not only to houses standing alone but also to housing complexes like apartments. The garden connects the indoors to the outdoors i.e., private residence and public society, especially since we lead our daily lives going back and forth between these places.
The garden's existence where the wind blows, the light sways and the greens express the four seasons, teaches us the true meaning of enriched life. More importantly, by having a good partnership with a garden designer who pursues the answer to "how to enjoy life through a garden", a garden that reflects a resident's characteristics can be created, and this garden will grow together with the environment and the family. In this article, we discuss the process of landscape completion while working with a garden designer. Also, merit, demerit, cost and maintenance are discussed.
The completion of a garden is the starting point. The joy of having a garden is to cherish how the garden transforms/grows beautifully over the years. It is best to enjoy the garden life as a part of residence, with a mentality of creating a landscape together with a garden designer.

Kiso, in Nagano prefecture, is famous for producing good-quality timber from the old days, most notably, cypress. Artifacts using cypress and lacquer have been industrialized, and because it is blessed with mountain forests, Kiso had inherited the tradition until now. The bathtub design project "FURO" started by interior designers Ryu Kosaka and Yukio Hashimoto maximizes Kiso's traditional techniques and transmits Japanese culture to the world.
Kosaka used 300-year-old Kiso cypress and designed a circular bathtub "HINOKI" to bring out its soft texture. It is a usual practice to clench the wooden bathtub with metal bands on the exterior to avoid and reinforce shears but this bathtub is reinforced from the inside so bands won't be seen. This requires advanced techniques, but with craftsman Kesao Ito's pride and skill, an accurate product corresponding to its design was completed.
Hashimoto believed in creating bathtubs that would symbolize the unique bathing style of the Japanese, and he thought achieving this would require the traditional Japanese lacquering called "Urushi" technique. When he designed "TOMOE", he actually sat in the bathtub and closely inspected how his back lay on the tub before he made decisions on the design. The craftsman, Tomochika Saito, hopes this will be an opportunity to inform the world about "Urushi" possibilities.
"FURO" will be showcased at Milano Salone in April 2008. The product has modern aesthetics made by accurate hands dealing with Japanese tradition and culture. It will be transmitted globally and at the same time, it'll be a great opportunity to teach Japanese people about the magnificence of their own country's culture.

There is a little village called Spannum that is about a 30-minute drive north of Leeuwarden, the provincial capital of Friesland, Holland. Textile designer, Claudy Jongstra has her residence here. It's also her workshop and atelier. On the south side of this vast plot of land is her residence and on the north side, there is an atelier. On the west side, there is a factory. Her residence used the soil derived from this area so that the walls have round corners and it now has a soft touch. The residence was in a process of renovation so it had a rough image but Claudy's work displayed everywhere has been adding some warmth.
Originally, Claudy was studying fashion at an art school in Utrecht, but she was mesmerized by Mongolian nomads' tents that she saw in "Nederlands Textielmuseum", and became interested in felt works. She learned the forgotten techniques from the old literary documents and blended in the modern essence. As a result, she created her own world.
She is keeping 200 sheep called "Drents Heideschaap" of which there are only 1000 in the world. This type of sheep have beautiful long wool which is absolutely necessary for her felt work production. Her attractive felt which cannot be seen anywhere else include a blend of alpaca and cashmere and also a silk blend which is almost a see-through. Currently, there are over 500 kinds of felt. Claudy's unique and beautiful work is well-known in a wide-variety of industries, not just fashion or architecture.

The word "den" is used to describe a room with a bookshelf filled with books and a desk for reading and writing. However, for the last several years, the layout plans where the den is consolidated with a living/dining room or a bedroom are becoming more common. Also, open-style dens like establishing a semi-private space somewhere in the hallway or in the passage hole and having a PC space exposed to the vaulted ceiling, are becoming popular. This current phenomenon stems from the fact that the purpose of having a den is not only for reading books and writing things, but also for using a PC and indulging oneself in music and hobbies as well as doing business. The den's purpose is now diversified and the mentality about having a private space in the residence is changing.
The mainstream for the last several years is an open-style den without any partitions, similar to the open-style kitchen trend. Because of the living situations in modern Japanese cities, it is not easy to secure enough residential space for each family member to have individual rooms. People yearn for open-style/ flexible layout plans and private space. A desired den right now is a space which satisfies both these needs. Complying with the present circumstances, we look into the den style which functions like a workroom, in addition to an individual room.

The growing housing complex market is greatly changing in Japan. In the first half of 2007, land prices in the central city rose, and in Tokyo and Kanagawa prefectures, allotment sale unit prices rose by 11.4% compared to the previous year. If limited to the prime area, i.e; the 23 wards in Tokyo, land price unit of 1m2 was approximately 1.10 million, which converts to a 26.9% increase. Because buyers cannot accommodate skyrocketing land prices, home sales decreased. On top of that, many were confused by the implementation of the new building standards law, which in turn caused the supply of new apartment units to decrease. Some developers with too much stock started to postpone some projects.
Under these circumstances, strategies of apartment businesses began to show signs of polarization. Major developers started structuring and planning in the prime areas such as the center of the city or areas near the train station, and began to sell highly priced apartment units fully equipped with utility services, nice interiors, and facilities. On the contrary, middle-, small-sized, or newcomer developers supply reasonably priced apartment units located in the suburbs. Among these, floor heights are compressed and floor-area ratio is ensured to the maximum legal regulations. These apartment buildings are the so-called "crammed type" and the buyers need good eyes to assess the balance between the price and the quality. Because an issue of disguised earthquake resistance was exposed in 2005, apartment buyers also have a tendency to place importance on "security/reassurance" in addition to "location", "space (layout)", and "price". However, it seems like users put too much importance on living "safely" rather than living "comfortably". Also, a lot of people select apartment buildings for a passive reason like "maintenance is easy".
It is essential to coordinate individual residences with your own style and sometimes visit each other's apartments. These kinds of efforts ultimately lead to having a long-term perspective in community maintenance and apartment management. That means having somewhat of a connection with the local community, and not just caring about the building frame quality.

Piet Boon has been getting a lot of attention in the Holland. His private home is in Oostzaan, Amsterdam. He is living with his wife, Karin and their two children in this great greenery environment. The house has a dark gray roof and a unique chimney, giving it a classical yet minimal atmosphere. There is a large dining room, kitchen, wine cellar, living room, bedroom, bathroom and kid's rooms. He started up a small construction company in 1982 called "PIET BOON OOSTZAAN B.V." with Karin, but his interest shifted from not only constructing a building but to designing as well as them. Currently, Boon does the planning and construction of the building, as well as the designing of the interiors and the furniture. For him, attention to detail is an essential part of creating a comfortable residence. And he considers the scenery seen from inside the house is also important that you can view a pastoral landscape and a sheep crowd in his premise from the terrace where the furniture he designed, are laid out. Piet says that being a carpenter originally gave him a full knowledge of materials and that factor helps him when he designs. In addition to designing, the experience of being involved in all aspects of building a home has given Boon the ability to control things such as the temperature, lighting, and sound system, all with the help of a computer.

The K residence stands in Hakone-machi, Miura county, in Kanagawa prefecture. This area is famous for its great nature and cool summer that there are many weekend houses. The owners, K couple purchased this plot of land for the reason of good access from their main home, which is about one hour drive. The K's also they liked the environment where even though it's located in the center of town, there is a 400-year-old beech tree and the mountains and rives are situated on the north side. This reminded the K's of their old residence in England where they lived for 7 years and this house was surrounded by clean water and lots of greenery.
What the K's wanted was a simple residence that used natural materials, having a gallery on one side of the home where all the antique furniture that the wife collects, can be displayed. Normally, when a house is built in an area still lush with nature, the windows are made to be large to enjoy the nature as much as possible. However, architect, Ken Mineta and Ei Onda, proposed a plan in which the house would be shaped like a letter, "S" to go against the landscape, allowing residents to have a completely different experience while inside the house than they would have outside of the home. Each window was designed to frame the outdoor scenery, and every room was designed in a different shape to give each a distinctly unique feel and view, ensuring that residents could enjoy all aspects of the scenery which changes gradually from the entrance to the living & dining room and from the first floor to the second floor.
On the north side of the living & dining room, a 5m length bench was inserted, giving the room an "Arabian" feel. This bench is useful for guests who can lay down and relax. Antique furniture displayed all over the house not only adds color to the space, but also creates a high-quality atmosphere.

K Residence / Sutdio ARCHI FARM

Lately, public interest with regards to sleep is rising. Main elements constructing a bedroom where comfortable sleep can be acquired are the following. Light, sound, temperature, humidity level and scent are intricately relevant. However, this article tackles the issues such as planning the bedroom and the beddings which directly touch the body, to materialize a good night sleep.
In the past, Japan didn't have a custom to sleep in beds. People changed the sleeping places according to the seasons, i.e., looking for coolness in the summer and warmth in the winter. But along with the influx of western culture, a concept of bedroom which is just for sleeping, appeared. Recently, people started to have a desire to watch movies and listen to music in bedrooms. With this trend, bedrooms combined with bathrooms, shower and closets which are like hotel rooms, are getting popular. This kind of trend stems from a factor that more people started to pursue fulfilling private space and time. An ideal, relaxing bedroom would be the one where all the necessary functions are consolidated and a rational traffic line is materialized, emitting a luxurious atmosphere.
On the other hand, fabrics like curtains and linens are easily replaceable in bedrooms that it is possible to change the atmosphere depending on the seasons and one's feeling. It is difficult to repurchase bed frames and mattresses a number of times but it would be fun to enjoy some changes by fabric coordination with a twist. Comfortableness is of course, but psychological factors like satisfaction and sense of ease play an important role as to acquire a good night sleep. Thus, it's significant to make a bedroom reflecting one's own taste.
A bedroom is where you can go back to yourself the most, compared to other rooms in the residence. It would be perfect and luxurious to be able to enjoy an ideal bedroom where you can relax with peace of mind.