Flexibility has long been a guiding principle of Japanese architecture. Consider Japan’s ongoing use of sliding doors or screens to shape fluid interiorspace. These four very different books about Japanese architecture since the 1980s reveal new twists in that heritage of design, many brought about by surprising fusions of vernacular materials and new technology. All of them balance accounts of quintessential Japanese architectural developments—a house with a Shintoshrine at its heart, for example—with an array of ideas applicable globally.
21st Century Tokyo: A Guide to Contemporary Architecture presents a concise yet provocative overview of flexible thinking. Carefully researched, finely detailed, and affectionate toward its subject, its authors are two architecteducators and a photographer, all transplants from other countries.
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