Having visited Japan in 2016, I was delighted to find these images in Pinterest. I drove past the Nagakin Capsule Tower (photo below) designed by Kisho Kurowaka and always wanted to know what it looked like inside. Some lessons to learn from this 1972 building on how to design micro, affordable housing for the masses.
The images below are select photographs of a trip I took to Japan in July this year. Tokyo was very clean, the food amazing and the people ultra friendly and polite and I will go back again……….but these are all cliches you’ve heard before, possibly from every person you know who has visited that part of the world. Do you know anyone who hasn’t liked Japan?
Hopefully though, you haven’t seen some of the amazing buildings I photographed on my travels and you get to view them in real life some day. Being the architectural nerd that I am, I researched before my trip as well as trawled the streets looking for inspirational architecture. I spent most of my time in Tokyo, but also took a day trip to an ominous Shogun temple in Nikko, followed by an Onsen in the middle of a green and wooded hillside. You would be happy to know there are no photographs of that wonderful experience.
Kenzo Tange – Yoyogi National Gymnasium
Kisho Kurokawa – Nakagin Capsule Hotel
Le Corbusier – National Museum of Modern Art
Makato Watanabe – K Museum
Makato Watanabe – Aoyama Technical College
Tadao Ando – Omotesando Hills
Toyo Ito – Todd’s Building
SANAA – Dior
Kengo Kuma Office & Various Works
Yoshio Taniguchi – Museum of Horyuji Treasures
Herzog and de Meuron – Prada
Jean Nouvel – Mui Mui
Unknown Architect
Nikko Temple – Shogun Shrine
Unknown Architect after an Onsen – at peace and one with nature.
