Uncrating the Japanese House

Author: Yokoyama, Yuka
In 1953, architect Junzo Yoshimura designed a now-classic Japanese house and garden that he called Shofuso. This volume centres on design for Shofuso and two allied sites: Raymond Farm, a live-work residence built within an existing 18th-century farmhouse; and Nakashima Studios, a complex of structures designed to serve his furniture-making business and family home. Historical photographs and architectural drawings further elucidate this important chapter in modern architecture.The curators of MoMA’s 'House in the Garden' exhibition highlighted its synthesis of historic Japanese architecture with modern architecture: the clarity of the house’s post and beam structure, its flexibility of use and the close relationship of indoor and outdoor spaces.Each site, in its own way, is the embodiment of the personal relationships and cross-cultural collaborations among this group of architects and designers.The Raymonds, along with Yoshimura, Nakashima and others, came to understand Japan’s changing environment through the act of building, through collaboration and travel. Together, they extended these lessons into the furniture and furnishings of modern living in both Japan and the United States. This volume documents an exhibition of objects and ephemera mounted at Shofuso. New York–based architectural photographer Elizabeth Felicella captures each site in a portfolio of newly commissioned images.
ISBN 9781947359093. August Editions/Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia. hb. 144 pages. 80 colour, 40 b/w ills. 24 x 24 cm.