A short train ride from Tokyo will take you to the city of Matsumoto, and to Matsumoto Castle.  One of Japan’s most stunning castles, Matsumoto Castle (also called Matsumotojo) was built during the Sengoku peroid – which is dubbed the Warring States period.  It was a time of conflict in Japan that stretched from the [...]

Home designers may focus on the setting for their designs but the ideal for ecologically sound development is simply minimizing or completely negating the impact of development. Making the house “disappear” by blending the development into the surrounding landscape is one design development finding a degree of credibility after a shaky start. Painting existing development [...]

This “shell house” is from Japan (there they go again) and was designed by Kotaro Ide. Unfortunately, there is no one angle that you can look at this house from and see all the curves and beauty. They saythat the two sections are supposed to represent a conch, but how they do that is beyond [...]

The Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo is the world’s first capsule-centered piece of architecture built for actual use. This is probably not a new concept to you, but I think it’s rare that when you can actually see the room for yourself. To me, it looks like a room aboard a spaceship. Just imagine, instead [...]