Jutaku

Jutaku or kyosho jutaku (Japanese: 狭小住宅] is a Japanese architectural style focused on delivering original, "micro-home" designs on very small sites.^[1]

History

The Jutaku phenomenon rose in the 1990s as Japan's real estate sites grew increasingly smaller, both from the Japanese inheritance system and the island's growing population.^[2][1] According to the architect Kengo Kuma, the first traces of Jutaku appear in the writings of the poet Kamo no Chōmei and the description of his own small house.^[3]

The development of smaller, capsule homes was influenced also by Japan's capsule hotel trend, launched in 1974 with the Nakagin Capsule Tower.^[4]

Description

Jutaku simply means "house" in Japanese.^[5] Jutaku houses and buildings focus on minimalist, multi-functional spaces to make up for their small sites. Jutaku houses often do not blend with their urban context, making the architectural style a good fit for individualist-oriented cultures.^[2] Jutaku houses and buildings often feature contorted geometries and daring structural engineering, or awkward site configurations.^[5][4]

According to the Japanese architect Yasuhiro Yamashita, a Jutaku house is awkward, built towards the sky, nature-sensitive, personalized, monochrome, built with reflective materials and hidden storage areas.^[6]

Examples

• 4x4 house in Tarumi-ku, Kobe, designed by Ando Tadao^[7][4]
• Layer House, designed by Hiroaki Ohtani^[4]
• Lucky Drops, in Tokyo, designed by Yasuhiro Yamashita^[6]

Further reading

• Naomi Pollock (2015), Jutaku: Japanese Houses. Phaidon Press. ISBN 9780714869629

See also

• List of architectural styles
• Japanese architecture