Inside Japan's Most Minimalist Homes

choi

Lindsay Baker, Inside Japan's Most Minimalist Homes. BBC Dec 6, 2022 (in the column Designed).
https://www.bbc.com/culture/arti ... inimalist-interiors

Note:
(a) "Peninsula House [半島の家] is a monolithic structure that seems to rise up from its surroundings. It was designed by Mount Fuji Architects Studio [マウント  フジ  アーキテクツ  スタジオ], and has an arresting, Brutalist simplicity. The spaces of the structure are flooded with light on the ocean side, with double-height walls of windows offering epic views of sea and sky. Iida elaborates: 'The scene evokes a contemporary take on shakkei, the Japanese concept of scenery borrowed from nature, as is often seen in traditional garden design * * *"
(i) Japanese-English dictionary:
* shakkei 借景 【しゃっけい】 (n): "making use of the surrounding landscape as a part of the design of a garden; natural scenery used as the background in the landscaping of a garden"
* kuma くま 《隈》 (n): "corner; nook; recess"
(ii) Mount Fuji Architects Studio's Concrete Residence Emerges from a Rocky Peninsula in japan. DesignBoom, Apr 17, 2019.
https://www.designboom.com/archi ... a-japan-07-04-2019/

(b) "The striking Lotus House [2005-; lacking Japanese name] was created by award-winning architect Kengo Kuma [隈 研吾; kuma is defined above], and with its innovative, bold checkboard-style walls, it nevertheless blends in with its natural surroundings. The airy home in Eastern Japan pno further details (as if hiding something] faces a pond planted with lotus plants"

(c) "Stairway House in Tokyo, created by young design studio nendo to accommodate an extended family of various generations. Central to its structure is a vast stairway-like structure"
(i)
(A) nendo, Inc 有限会社 nendo
(B) Its CEO is Ōki SATŌ 佐藤 オオキ.

Nendo. Archiproducts, undated
https://www.archiproducts.com/en/designers/nendo
("Oki Sato, alias Nendo, was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1977. After graduating in Architecture from Waseda University in 2002, he founded the Nendo studio in Tokyo. The name derives from a Japanese term that means 'clay' [粘土] and expresses his plastic and sculptural approach along with concepts of ductility and playfulness. This is the crux of Nendo's work on all scales, from interior architecture to furniture, installations and graphics")
(iii) English dictionary:
* ductile (adj; from Latin verb ducere draw, pull)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ductile
* stairway (n): "a passage in a public place with a set of steps that leads from one level to another"
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/stairway


(d) "Polygon House [official name: 軽井沢の別荘  Villa in Karuizawa] sits on a hillside surrounded by forests in Karuizawa, outside Tokyo, and was designed by Makoto Yamaguchi 山口 誠."
(i) Karuizawa[, Kitasaku District,], Nagano  長野県 [北佐久郡 (kanji 久 has 2 Chinese pronunciations: kyū and ku)] 軽井沢町
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karuizawa,_Nagano
(ii) Japanese-English dictionary:
* makoto 誠[P]; 実 【まこと】 (adv, n): "(1) truth; reality; (2) sincerity; honesty; integrity; fidelity"

(e) House S (lacking Japanese name). 2011-
(i) Its Architect, Project Architect and 施工 are identical to those of Garden House next.
(ii) This BBC article shows a photo of looking out into the garden, where the glass separating the two is unable to discern. A side view of the same room demonstrates the glass ceiling to floor (or window wall in English).
ATTACHMENT ONE IS HERE.
(iii) Floor plan of House S is rectangular.


(f) Garden House (lacking Japanese name)
(i) Garden House. Keiji Ashizawa Design, undated.
https://www.keijidesign.com/works/garden-house/
("2019
Architect: 芦沢啓治建築設計事務所 [The ashi is Japanese pronunciation of kanji 芦, meaning reed]
Project architect: 芦沢啓治 / 本條理恵 [Ri-e HONJŌ]
* * *
施工: 松本コーポレーション [Corporation]")
(ii) ANOTHER side view of the Garden House:
ATTACHMENT TWO is HERE.


(g) "Japanese Interiors by Mihoko Iida is published by Phaidon."
(i) Mihoko IIDA  飯田 美穂子
(A) The kanji 飯, meaning cooked rice, has Chinese pronunciation "han," Japanese pronunciation "meshi," and pronunciation of "ii" (denoting a long vowel of "i") that appears in name only.
(B) The Japanese surname Iida: "written 飯田 'paddy of cooked rice;' perhaps the original meaning was 'good rice paddy.' One family descended from the Takeda family [武田家] lived in the village of Iida in Kai [甲斐(国)] (now Yamanashi prefecture [山梨県]); another family of Murakami [村上] descent lived in a village by that name in Shinano 信濃[国] (now Nagano prefecture [長野県]). Both families are of the Minamoto [源] clan
(ii) Phaidon Press
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaidon_Press
("The company is based in London and New York City * * * Phaidon-Verlag was founded in 1923 in Vienna, Austria, by Ludwig Goldscheider, Béla Horovitz, and Frederick 'Fritz' Ungar. Originally operating under the name 'Euphorion-Verlag,' the founders settled on Phaidon (the German form of Phaedo), named after Phaedo of Elis, a pupil of Socrates, to reflect their love of classical antiquity and culture. The company's distinctive logo derives from the Greek letter phi, which represents the golden ratio, employed by artists, architects, and designers since the fourth century BC
(A) German-English dictionary:
* Verlag (noun masculine; from [verb] verlegen to publish): "publishing house"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Verlag
(B) golden ratio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio
(C) Phaedo of Elis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaedo_of_Elis
("fl[ourish] 4th century BCE) was a Greek philosopher. A native of Elis, he was captured in war as a boy and sold into slavery. He subsequently came into contact with Socrates at Athens, who warmly received him and had him freed")