Articles on design and architecture

Want to design your own living style? apply for MUJI House

MUJI challenges our strong belief that houses are “bigger, the better.” Meet their lovely, engaging houses -- exactly because they are small....

Hiragana-No Spiral House: Yuko Nagayama x Panasonic

This summarizes the major aspect of what modern architecture has been attempting to achieve: stability and security. “But I am increasingly fascinated by a house made of straw,” says architect Yuko Nagayama, who designed HIRAGANA-NO...

Woodgrain House: House Vision 2016

Find new potential of state-of-the-art printing technology in architecture and living environment, reviving hard-to-obtain natural wood in a unique way....

Rental Space Tower by Sou Fujimoto: House Vision 2016

Architect Sou Fujimoto is a master of "ambiguity." With Rental Space Tower, he maximizes the joy of sharing by blurring the boundaries of private ownership....

Grand Third Living: Kengo Kuma x Toyota House Vision 2016

At House Vision, Toyota and architect Kengo Kuma focuses on the mobility of cars. Toyota’s plug-in hybrid Prius is equipped with solar panels and has quite a substantial battery storage. It’s a mobile energy generator....

Horyuji: World’s oldest surviving wooden architecture

Tanada Terrace Office: MUJI x Atelier Bow-Wow House Vision 2016

MUJI's Tanada Terrace Office was developed as an extended office installed in a rural area in order to explore a flexible and organic relationship between urban workers and rural farmers. MUJI employees would work at Tanada Office...

Yoshino-sugi Cedar House : Go Hasegawa x Airbnb

Airbnb & Go Hasegawa designed Yoshino Cedar House to re-brand traditional values denied by modern economy. Airbnb helps locals share such values globally....

Open House with Condensed Core: House Vision 2016

Architect Shigeru Ban has been actively involved in disaster relief projects in many parts of the world, by designing and providing temporary shelters. When he imagined a next generation house, it became tiny, flexible, mobile,...

Engawa

Engawa, the narrow wooden strips attached around the periphery of a house has been an indispensable part of the traditional Japanese house, functioning as a sun porch, a workshop, a venue for socializing and a buffer to shield the...

Zen design, minimal design, “less is more,” Japanese traditional design and Zero explained

Anonymous is beautiful: “The Profiles of Design” by Naoto Fukasawa

Japanese product designer Naoto Fukasawa quotes from his book "The Profile of Design." Find where his minimalist, quiet yet powerful design came from....

Zero perspectives in “Small Architecture” by Kengo Kuma

Kuma's book, "Small Architecture," is full of inspiration that questions the myth of modern architecture, which has become excessively big, hard and alienating. He advocates small architecture as an alternative, due to its boundless...

Aesthetics of “emptiness” by Kenya Hara

Kenya Hara is a Japanese graphic designer who has been playing a pivotal role shaping MUJI's brand philosophy. As a member of MUJI's Advisory Board since 2001, along with Naoto Fukasawa, he strengthened the concept of "emptiness,"...

We are all in this together: re-thinking design & architecture

“Great Transformation of Architecture”: Toyo Ito and Sustainable Architecture

Ito questions modern architecture, especially public infrastructure, which heavily relies on placing something big, hard and sturdy in-between nature and humans. Modern architecture and infrastructure attempts to draw...

Shigeru Ban: Disaster Relief as Architecture Projects

Japanese architect Shigeru Ban has been involved in natural disaster relief project for years, which strongly reflects his design philosophy....

Shigeru Ban: Disaster Relief as Architecture Projects (2)

How much is sufficient? “80% Full Product” by MUJI

Pursuing "just right" (not too much, not too little), MUJI uses the slogan "fitness80" to ask what the "just right" level/amount is for humans....

Re-discovering human-size comfort: MUJI’s Good Fit Right Angle Socks

We assume efficiency always brings us best outcome, but then why aren't socks L-shaped? Check MUJI's perpendicular, "Good fit right angle" socks that fit our body just right....

Re-defining the future of living: House Vision 2016