CNN video. Japanese 'ninja' home maximizes space.
16/12/2013.
[VIDEO] from CNN. Japan.
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA via Paula Newton CNN.
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA via Paula Newton CNN.
Tiny homes, big ideas. CNN's Paula Newton looks at how home owners are spending big money for tiny land and radical design houses. Radical design is featuring more and more in Japan's residential landscape. It is a hit among the country's young generation.
House K by Sou Fujimoto Architects. Photography © Iwan Baan. Click above to see larger image.
Outside vision. House H by Hiroyuki Shinozaki Architects. Photography © Fumihiko Ikemoto.
Detail exterior view. House NA. By Sou Fujimoto. Photography © Iwan Baan.
"Home for all" by Toyo Ito, Kumiko Inui, Akihisa Hirata, Sou Fujimoto. Photography © Office of Kumiko Inui. Courtesy of Office of Kumiko Inui.
House T, Tokyo, Japan by Hiroyuki Shinozaki. Photography © Hiroyasu Sakaguchi. Click above to see larger image.
Many avant-garde structures are small middle-class homes.
For a society that regards conformity as an important value, there are surprising number of Japanese who opt for homes that defy the cookie-cutter design.
Take for example, Tatsumi Terado and his wife Hanae (HOUSE T, by Hiroyuki Shinozaki) who lives in a house with no interior walls, hardly any barriers and some ladders to get around. The young couple call their house the Ninja -- because they need to be as nimble as one to go from one room to another.
"We feel we're getting in better shape these days," says Hanae Terado, extolling the benefits of all the climbing around the house. "But we never fall."
This is a house where our thoughts and inspirations take place.
CNN's On the Road series brings you a greater insight into the customs and culture of Japan. On TV and online CNN explores the places, the people and the passions unique to this Asian nation.
