Sowa Unit is a new project from architect Kensuke Watanabe, in the form of a rehabilitation center for mental illnesses located in Tokyo. The complex is made up of six connected two-storey concrete sections. Dezeen features a gallery of photos, as well as an explanation of the project from Watanabe.
Jan 8, 2010
Back in October was saw renderings of the Hoto Fudo complex — designed by Takeshi Hosaka Architects — and now we get to see what the completed structure looks like, courtesy of Designboom.
Jan 2, 2010
Another beautiful living space to drool over, this time Katsufumi Kubota‘s MA House, located in the city of Matsuyama. One thing I’m always curious about though — how do these spaces look after people have actually lived in them? Via MoCo Loco.
Jan 2, 2010
Ryuichi Ashizawa Architects designs this beautiful chapel, part of a hotel located near the top of Mt. Hiromine, not far from Himeji.
Dec 28, 2009
If you like stark white interiors, I don’t think you can get much better than Hideyuki Nakayma Architecture‘s O House, located in Kyoto — see more of the interior in this post over at Designboom.
Dec 28, 2009
For the Hakone Open-Air Museum, Tezuka Architects created the “Woods of Net,” a permanent pavilion for net artist Toshiko Horiuchi Macadam — ArchDaily posts a few photos of the installation. Via Dezain.net.
Dec 24, 2009
Designboom takes a look at the Ryuichi Ashizawa Architects‘ “Bamboo Forest and Huts with Water” installation, presented earlier this year as part of the “Aqua Metropolis” event in Osaka.
Dec 24, 2009
BAKOKO‘s Alastair Townsend has a post up about a great project from Tokyo Geijitsu Daigaku students, “a set of three exquisite installations they built in the Ueno neighborhood around their university.” Pictured above, “reclaimed soji screens frame a reconfigurable space for events.”
Dec 18, 2009
Beautiful new gallery in the city of Kyotanabe (near Kyoto) called Tanada Piece Gallery, featuring a rice field-inspired interior by Japanese architecture studio Geneto.
Dec 15, 2009
As factories go, you have to hand it to Ryuichi Ashizawa Architects, the Kobe Portisland factory (above) is a rather nice one — Designboom posts more images.
Dec 15, 2009
The thing about sci-fi-esque House 01 — a project designed by Ryuichi Ashizawa Architects — that surprises me the most is that it’s currently under construction. See this post over at Designboom for more details.
Dec 11, 2009
Another fine Japanese home — yes, yet another — to gently drool over, this time “A Mathematician’s House” (named after the owner, maybe) in Hiroshima. It was designed by Tetsuya Nakazono. Via Dezain.net.
Dec 11, 2009
0300TV has another great video tour up, this time covering the SANAA-designed 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa. Via Dezain.net.
Dec 11, 2009
I have to say I’m quite a fan of these secret gardens you hear about, located on Tokyo rooftops. The one pictured above is not in Tokyo, but rather in Isezaki (Gunma prefecture), and was designed by Ryuichi Ashizawa Architects. I’ve been told that KDa‘s Astrid Klein has one of her own.
Dec 8, 2009
0300TV has put together a rather nice video of the Sia Aoyama Building, designed by Jun Aoki. Via Dezain.net.
Dec 4, 2009
PauseTalk is a regular series of events that take place at Cafe Pause on the first Monday of every month, with a start time of 20:00. The idea is to create a forum where Tokyo-based creatives can get together and discuss their own projects, as well as cultural currents of the city. The next edition happens June 4.
We hereby define a new term, that of the magaziner, described as a person who exerts an unhealthy amount of love for all things magazine. The Magaziner is a site that mostly focuses on the intersection between magazines and the digital frontier, and what it means for the medium. This does not preclude the inclusion of a healthy amount of print love.
Jean Snow is a contributor to Arcade Mania, your guide to the arcade gaming scene in Japan (Amazon US/Amazon Japan). He also provided assistance on Tokyolife: Art and Design, a guide to Tokyo's cultural output of the past few years, covering the works of over 80 influential creatives.
He will be contributing to the upcoming fifth editions of The Rough Guide to Tokyo and The Rough Guide to Japan, due for release in 2011.
Jean Snow is Executive Director of the PechaKucha organization. He also helps run the PechaKucha Night in Tokyo -- please get in touch if you are interested in presenting at a future event. For a more intimate salon-like discussion group, join him at his monthly PauseTalk event.
A longtime resident of Tokyo, he lives and breathes design, pop culture, and gaming, sustained by an unhealthy addiction to magazines and frequent visits to his favorites cafes. He has reported on these obsessions for various online/offline publications, including the following: Time, Inside (Australian Design Review), Gizmodo, Gridskipper, Kotaku, 1UP, Tokyo Q, Superfuture, OK Fred, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, I.D. (International Design), Metropolis, Azure, MoCo Loco, Kateigaho International Edition, Wired's Game|Life, PingMag, CNNGo, Phaidon, and The Japan Times.
You can subscribe to an RSS feed of this site, and also follow him on Twitter and Facebook, or get in touch by email.
