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House breakers: How Japan deconstructed the family home

11 April 2017

With bold, uncompromising vision, Japan’s architects rebuilt their cities after the catastrophe of WWII. Now, the first major UK exhibition of their work comes to the Barbican with full-scale recreations of their modernistic, modular creations.

House NA by Sou Fujimoto Architects, Tokyo, Japan, 2011. Almost entirely transparent, the three-storey house features 21 floor spaces set at different levels. Photo by Iwan Baan.

In the aftermath of WWII, Japan’s devastated urban centres were in desperate need of rebuilding. Out the rubble, fresh, radical ideas for housing emerged. For a new generation of Japanese architects, the family home became the object of reinterpretation and experimentation.

A new exhibition at the Barbican, The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945, explores these themes through two large installations. The Moriyama House by Tokyo architect Ryue Nishizawa is a full-scale recreation of a minimalist prefabricated town house.

Stark and angular, Nishizawa's house was designed to deconstruct the traditional Japanese home and break down the conventions of privacy, comfort, and space. Sitting alongside is architect and historian Terunobu Fujimori's reimagining of a traditional Japanese tea house and ornamental garden.

The first major UK exhibition dedicated to post-war Japanese architecture, these installations give a taste of the bold solutions which addressed the challenges facing Japan's cities in the latter half of the 20th Century.

The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945 is on at the Barbican, London from 23 March to 25 June 2017.

House and studio, Azabu, Tokyo, 1951. A mix of modernism and traditional Japanese minimalism, the house was designed by influential Czech-American architect Antonin Raymond. © Osamu Murai. Courtesy of Koichi Kitazawa.
Inside the recreation of the Moriyama House at the Japanese House exhibition, Barbican Art Gallery, London. Photo: Miles Willis/Getty Images.
Moriyama House, Tokyo, by the architect Ryue Nishizawa, 2005. The house comprises ten unconnected modular buildings. © Takashi Homma.
Model of a Japanese home on display at the Japanese House exhibition, Barbican Art Gallery, London. Photo: Miles Willis/Getty Images.
Courtyard at the Japanese House exhibition, Barbican Art Gallery, London. Photo: Miles Willis/Getty Images.

Building a Japanese tea house in 10 seconds

Time-lapse from The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945 at the Barbican.

Detail of the Terunobu Fujimori tea house at the Barbican Art Gallery. Photo: Miles Willis/Getty Images.
The O House, Kyoto, by the architect Hideyuki Nakayama, 2009. © Mitsutaka Kitamura.
Model on display at the Japanese House exhibition, Barbican Art Gallery, London. Photo: Miles Willis/Getty.
Architect's model at the Japanese House exhibition, Barbican Art Gallery. Photo: Miles Willis/Getty Images.

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