Photographer: Kenichi Suzuki | ArchDaily

House in Karuizawa / nao architects office + Studio Hashimura

Valeria Silva — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 02:00:00 +0000

This villa in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, was designed for a retired couple to spend their holidays. The rectangular volume, measuring 18.6 meters in width and 6.8 meters in depth, is placed along the front of a broad 990 m² site.

ISHIDA TOKYO Regional Headquarters / Nikken Sekkei

Hana Abdel — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A stepped, sloped roof floats in the city, enclosing a comfortable workplace - This project is a new Tokyo branch office for Ishida, a long-established manufacturer of scales headquartered in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan. The site is surrounded by high-rise condominiums, a national highway, and an expressway, but the road to the east is an important local street that connects the Shin-Itabashi subway station and JR Itabashi station, constantly crowded with people day and night. The east side of the building was considered an interface with the city, where the activity inside would subtly spill out, adding liveliness to the cityscape. At the foot of the building, the focus was to create a community promenade by improving the quality of the street space.

House U / Shinta Hamada Architects

Hana Abdel — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The site is located in a suburban agricultural area, with rice fields on the east side, a shrine surrounded by forests on the south side, a residential area on the west side, and fields on the north side.

Blank Garden / Unemori Architects

Hana Abdel — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 06:00:00 +0000

This house is built in Tokyo for a couple and a child. The site is situated within an area with the risk of flooding from the river running nearby, so the clients requested the house to be prepared for such an emergency. They also wished to have bright interior spaces with a view to greenery and a flexible floor plan to accommodate furniture layout changes for needs such as working from home and future lifestyle changes.

Subverting Traditional Dental Clinic Aesthetics: 9 Projects That Go Beyond Expectations

Susanna Moreira — Mon, 16 May 2022 07:30:00 +0000

Just like hospitals and medical offices, dental clinics are places that tend to bring anxiety and anguish to patients, reactions that can be intensified in an unfriendly and unwelcoming environment. White and neutral environments can bring the notion of asepsis and hygiene, essential requirements for hospital architecture. However, the lack of welcoming elements, such as the use of warmer colors and materials, may also be responsible for causing a certain distance between professionals and patients, in addition to reinforcing the stereotypes attributed to dental clinics.

Oharasando Building / TORU SHIMOKAWA architects

Hana Abdel — Mon, 27 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This flagship shop of multi-brand apparel is located in Hita City, Oita prefecture. The architect put emphasis on transparency of the interior, for shoppers inside the store feel uncomfortable when they are seen from outside the glazed openings.

The Ariake Gymnastics Centre / Nikken Sekkei + Shimizu Corporation

Pilar Caballero — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 21:00:00 +0000

The Ariake Gymnastics Centre “A Wooden Vessel Floating in the Bay Area" - The Ariake Gymnastics Centre is designed to function in two phases; initially as a temporary international sports competition facility, then, after taking out the temporary spectator stands, it will be converted into a permanent exhibition hall. A unique feature of this facility is its extensive and generous use of timber throughout the building.

Clinic in the Woods / Takashige Yamashita Office

Andreas Luco — Mon, 17 May 2021 18:00:00 +0000

The project is a pediatric dental & orthodontic clinic located in Saitama, Japan. The area around the site has been largely occupied by zelkova trees for centuries, some of which still remains in the garden of the client. There stand residential properties and dentistry the client’s family has run for last 60 years surrounded by the greenery. The existing clinic mainly offers regular dental care while it occasionally treats orthodontic and pediatric patients. Along with the increasing demands for latter services, the client decided to build an annex for dental and orthodontic treatments for children.

Cleaning Spaces With Light: Ultraviolet Radiation To Kill Viruses and Bacteria

Eduardo Souza — Thu, 21 Jan 2021 04:00:00 +0000

In dystopian films, it is a common trope to depict the sky as filled with a thick fog, blocking the sun's rays and bringing a dark atmosphere to the scenes. Whether in Blade Runner or in a Black Mirror episode, the lack of sun commonly represents a future we would rather not live in. The sun provides heat to planet Earth and is a great source of light energy, essential for the survival of many living creatures. We can generate electricity from the sun and still use only a fraction of the energy it provides. Sunlight also regulates our circadian cycle, which affects our mood. But recent forest fires and industrial pollution in some large cities have already made the dystopian blockage of sun a relatively common phenomenon, depriving hours of sunshine from many inhabitants. Concurrently, with the COVID-19 pandemic, we are living a plot that few science fiction writers could have predicted, and new technologies and solutions have emerged to try to contain the spread of this invisible enemy. Can the sun, or specifically ultraviolet radiation, kill viruses and bacteria? Could it kill the coronavirus?

House in Aokibashi / Shinta Hamada Architects

Hana Abdel — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 02:00:00 +0000

This is a project to renovate a room in an old apartment building facing the former Tokaido Kanagawa-juku. It was an impressive space with an open surrounding environment that could not be thought of as a central city area and a very bright interior space with natural sun light.

House in Heiwa / TORU SHIMOKAWA architects

Hana Abdel — Thu, 08 Oct 2020 06:00:00 +0000

It is located in the Konosusan scenic area at an altitude of about 100m in the center of Fukuoka city. The flagpole-shaped site has a view and a quiet environment where the wind can escape, and from the east side, you can see the same scenery unique to the scenic area where you can worship the sunrise on Mt. Shioji. In the current situation where there are high walls in the neighborhood and houses with a few plants that meet the law are lined up in the garden, it is unlikely that the landscape will be rich even after many years.

House in Izumi / TORU SHIMOKAWA architects

Hana Abdel — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 23:00:00 +0000

The site located in the Chikugo Plain in the southern part of Fukuoka Prefecture is long from north to south, and the road on the north side is at the end of the vehicle, so there is no traffic. A small river runs on the south side.

Public Bathrooms for Children: Design Tips and Inspiration

Audrey Migliani — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 07:35:00 +0000

We often use the term accessibility when designing spaces for the elderly or for people with special needs. However, to guarantee effective universal design for children, it is necessary to understand and cater to their specific needs as well, especially through ergonomics, safety, lighting, colors, and some particular accessories. In this article, we will cover the most important parameters to consider when choosing dimensions and materials in public bathrooms for young children.

Honai Children’s Center / UmbreArchitects

Daniel Tapia — Thu, 29 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Yawatahama City, located at the western end of Ehime, Japan is a port town with a thriving fishery and fishery processing industry, with terraced fields that are said to be cultivated and covered in the whole mountain.

Is Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) the Concrete of the Future?

José Tomás Franco — Mon, 19 Aug 2019 05:30:00 +0000

Concrete, an essential building material, has for decades offered us the possibility of shaping our cities quickly and effectively, allowing them to rapidly expand into urban peripheries and reach heights previously unimagined by mankind. Today, new timber technologies are beginning to deliver similar opportunities – and even superior ones – through materials like Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT).

Cross Laminated Timber (CLT): What It Is and How To Use It

Eduardo Souza — Sun, 20 May 2018 08:00:00 +0000

A few weeks ago we published an article on a recent sustainability crisis that often goes unnoticed. The construction industry has been consuming an exorbitant amount of sand, and it's gradually depleting. When used for manufacturing concrete, glass, and other materials, it is a matter that should concern us. Construction is one of the largest producers of solid waste in the world. For instance, Brazil represents about 50% to 70% of the total solid waste produced. But how can we change this situation if most of the materials we use are not renewable, and therefore, finite?

11 Works of Asian Architecture in Full Bloom

María Francisca González — Sun, 08 Apr 2018 12:00:00 +0000

This week, we present a selection of the best images of Asian architecture in bloom. These 11 projects from Japan and South Korea incorporate the springtime beauty of trees such as cherry and almond. Read on for a selection of images from prominent photographers such as Shigetomo Mizuno and Kai Nakamura.

House K / Shinta Hamada Architects

Rayen Sagredo — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 20:00:00 +0000

House K is sited in the suburbs of Maebashi city in Japan. There are many similar houses around the site and creating boring landscape. We tried to make small changes to landscape as same as designing inside spaces by making a new context in limited site area.