Modern Japanese House by Phaidon
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 10. 3.05
A tome-sized book on the Modern Japanese House is soon to be released by Phaidon Press. Green designers find inspiration in the economic use of space and materials in Japanese homes. This book showcases many modern Japanese designs, dividing them into five chapters: Tiny Houses, Inside/Outside, Multi-Generation Houses, Work/Play and Vacation Houses. Architects featured include such familiar figures as Kazuyo Sejima, Jun Aoki, Shigeru Ban, Hitoshi Abe and Shuhei Endo, as well as lesser known practitioners such as Nobuaki Furuya, Hiroshii Nakao, among others. Available for $47.25 from Amazon.
Tunes = radio,
movies = rent
Although this book might have some nice examples most Japanese homes aren't usually a very green model to follow. Insulation is rarely used despite the extremes of weather, double glazing is vertually unheard of, and materials are cheap. As more efficient air con units have come in, power consumption has gone up as most people use the new ones along side their old inefficient ones. That's my experience anyway...