Residential Architecture: The Latest Architecture and News

+ 14

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?

+ 4

+ 22

+ 10

+ 38

+ 19

+ 18

+ 23

+ 11

+ 21

+ 9

+ 7

+ 13

Aedas have recently unveiled this design for a serviced apartment building in Hong Kong. Situated in the neighborhood of Mongkok, one of the most densely populated areas on the planet, the building is squeezed into what the architects refer to as a "challengingly small" site of 614 square meters. More images and description after the break.

+ 36

+ 14

+ 6