Comments on: Living on a small footprint, minimalist living: The Japan edition

By: Annie

Annie — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 02:51:05 +0000

These homes are amazing. I look around at my 720 square feet and see that I have a long way to go…

Thanks for sharing this!

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Living on a small footprint, minimalist living: The Japan edition « — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:49:58 +0000

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By: Stephen - Rat Race Trap

Stephen - Rat Race Trap — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 02:43:30 +0000

Christiaan, this was a wonderful article. Very interesting. Thanks for sharing it. Keep up the good work!

By: Ralph

Ralph — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:53:22 +0000

I was wondering about an Ando apartment building in the Netherlands. Now I understand.

By: Carl

Carl — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:36:06 +0000

A great edition of minimalist living, although I do miss the dumptruck house.

By: Christiaan

Christiaan — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:54:48 +0000

I can’t find them all as of yet, but I’m fairly certain that these two are correct:

4×4 House:
Tarumi-ku, Kobe

Slit:
“Shitamachi”, Horikiri, Tokyo

I hope you can find them this way. If you see anything else while searching that’s worth sharing please do.

By: Jean Philippe

Jean Philippe — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:28:29 +0000

Thanks for this very interesting post!
It could be interesting to know the actual locations of these houses for those interested in seeing them. I live in Yokohama so that would be a cool opportunity to go to new places. Do you have the adresses? Thanks a lot!

By: Christiaan

Christiaan — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:37:04 +0000

I wish I were in Japan. I was there once, way back….

Lived in Japan between 85 and 89. And actually lived in a housing project designed by Tadao Ando (Rokko 1). My dad was sent to Japan by his employer to set up a quality control,which of course he could later do again when back in The Netherlands because the Japanese soon were better at it than the business that sent him there in the first place. He took the whole family along for a four year stay in Japan. (Family of six)

It’s where I learned to love rice, fish, became bilingual (Dutch and English, to bad I didn’t learn Japanese as well.) and probably it’s why those concrete modern buildings feel so homely to me.

By: John Bardos

John Bardos — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:01:45 +0000

Great article. I am also considering downsizing to a minimalist house. Although, I don’t think I could afford the houses you have listed here. I would guess that these are easily million dollar homes, just because of the architects and materials used.

My wife and I bought a house in Japan a few years ago and it is just too much space. We had to buy more furniture and now have more cleaning and up-keep. In hind-sight, it was definitely a mistake.

Other sites that might be of interest are:
http://www.tinyhouses.net/
http://tinyhouseblog.com/
http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/

By the way, are you in Japan now? Please email are in Kansai.

By: Ralph

Ralph — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:51:37 +0000

And there is this one.
http://ralphcarlsonblog.com/wordpress/2009/06/sunday-funnies-3/