Residential Architecture: The Latest Architecture and News

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Japan is famous for its radical residential architecture. But as Tokyo architect Alastair Townsend explains, its penchant for avant garde housing may be driven by the country’s bizarre real estate economics, as much as its designers’ creativity.

Here on ArchDaily, we see a steady stream of radical Japanese houses. These homes, mostly designed by young architects, often elicit readers’ bewilderment. It can seem that in Japan, anything is permissible: stairs and balconies without handrails, rooms flagrantly cast open to their surroundings, or homes with no windows at all.

These whimsical, ironic, or otherwise extreme living propositions arrest readers’ attention, baiting us to ask: WTF Japan? The photos travel the blogosphere and social networks under their own momentum, garnering global exposure and international validation for Japan’s outwardly shy, yet media-savvy architects. Afterall, in Japan – the country with the most registered architects per capita – standing out from the crowd is the key to getting ahead for young designers. But what motivates their clients, who opt for such eccentric expressions of lifestyle?

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Brasilia, the federal capital of Brazil and icon of the brazilian modernism. Initially planned by the urbanist Lúcio Costa for 500,000 inhabitants (now lives more than 2,5 million people). Construction began in 1956 and included the most remarkable buildings designed by Oscar Niemeyer, reason why Brasilia is the only city in the world built in the 20th century to be awarded the status of Historical and Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

To honor the work of Oscar Niemeyer, we present after the brake some of the photos taken by the franco-brazilian photographer Marcel Gautherot during the construction of Niemeyer's emblematic buildings. Such as the Palácio do Planalto, Palácio de Alvorada (official residence of the President of Brazil), the Cathedral of Brasilia and the National Congress of Brazil.

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