What makes a home for Japanese? For a fairly small part of the world, Japanese culture is renowned for its delicacy, naturalist and nobility. This also includes the home where they live in. The construction of a Japanese home design has several elements that also reflect this cultural idea.
So, what is it that makes the Japanese home design so unique and different? The elements that make them are modularity of the interiors, usage of natural elements, smart-yet-simple joints and the behavior consideration of all of them. The simplicity and the unity of those are not to be neglected too. Some which you could consider putting them in your home.
First Element, Fusuma. They are sliding doors that run on wooden rails and can be easily moved or removed to create flexible room divisions. Remove them to join a room with the other room and it should be light weight too. Traditionally they are the same size as a tatami mat, made of wood and paper, with a black lacquer border and a clever finger catch. They are often decorated with graphics or scenes from nature.
Second Element, Roka. Roka, meaning “hallway” refers to wood-floored passages that run both inside and out, sometimes to extended outbuildings. The concept here is unity and similarity of materials here and there.
Third Element, Shoji. Running along the same rails as the fusuma, shoji panels serve to divide the house into necessary spaces and serve as external walls. Where the fusuma are opaque, the thin paper of the shoji (made from mulberry bark, not rice paper as many believe), allow light to pass through the house creating ambient lighting.
Fourth Element, Engawa. The engawa is a wooden veranda area that sits outside of the tatami space and is usually open, but capped by large eaves, protecting the shoji from the weathers.
We first stop here for the four elements of Japanese home which differentiate them from the other designs. Those are the Fusuma, Roka, Shoji and Engawa, all of which are made from wood and natural materials and simple modular characteristics. We absolutely have something to learn from these smart Japanese designs! We will continue this article with another overview of the infamous tatami…. Let’s meet on the next writing!
What makes a home for Japanese? For a fairly small part of the world, Japanese culture is renowned for its delicacy, naturalist and nobility. This also includes the home where they live in. The construction of a Japanese home design has several elements that also reflect this cultural idea.
So, what is it that makes the Japanese home design so unique and different? The elements that make them are modularity of the interiors, usage of natural elements, smart-yet-simple joints and the behavior consideration of all of them. The simplicity and the unity of those are not to be neglected too. Some which you could consider putting them in your home.
When any room can be a living room, bedroom, dining room, or study, the need for simple, clutter-free, and clean living prevails. This is the case with the Japanese home, you can transform a room into anything you want it to be. Everything is portable, partition-able, and highly adaptable in the traditional Japanese house, where rooms can be as large or small as required.
First Element, Fusuma. They are sliding doors that run on wooden rails and can be easily moved or removed to create flexible room divisions. Remove them to join a room with the other room and it should be light weight too. Traditionally they are the same size as a tatami mat, made of wood and paper, with a black lacquer border and a clever finger catch. They are often decorated with graphics or scenes from nature.
Second Element, Roka. Roka, meaning “hallway” refers to wood-floored passages that run both inside and out, sometimes to extended outbuildings. The concept here is unity and similarity of materials here and there.
Third Element, Shoji. Running along the same rails as the fusuma, shoji panels serve to divide the house into necessary spaces and serve as external walls. Where the fusuma are opaque, the thin paper of the shoji (made from mulberry bark, not rice paper as many believe), allow light to pass through the house creating ambient lighting.
Fourth Element, Engawa. The engawa is a wooden veranda area that sits outside of the tatami space and is usually open, but capped by large eaves, protecting the shoji from the weathers.
We first stop here for the four elements of Japanese home which differentiate them from the other designs. Those are the Fusuma, Roka, Shoji and Engawa, all of which are made from wood and natural materials and simple modular characteristics. We absolutely have something to learn from these smart Japanese designs! We will continue this article with another overview of the infamous tatami…. Let’s meet on the next writing!