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How the mindset of traditional Japanese society can guide our own
efforts to lead a green lifestyle today. If we want to live
sustainably, how should we feel about nature? About waste? About
our forests and rivers? About food? Just Enough is a book of
stories and sketches that give valuable insight into what it is
like to live in a sustainable society by describing life in Japan
some two hundred years ago, during the late Edo period, when cities
and villages faced many of the same environmental challenges we do
today and met them beautifully and inventively.
Small Spaces is about living comfortably and using space wisely,
and where better to find ideas on that subject than Japan, one of
the world's most urban and densely populated countries? Tokyo
resident Azby Brown, a distinguished architect and designer, has
assembled dozens of creative solutions to space and storage
problems, illustrating them with photographs and plans of actual
living environments in contemporary homes.
The key to his approach is what might be called The Three Cs
-compact, comfortable, and convenient. Use of space is
reconsidered, with easy living always the uppermost goal. A living
room is opened up by creating level changes or joining it with the
exterior. A staircase can double as a chest of drawers, a space
beneath the floor can serve as a kitchen pantry or hiding place for
a disappearing bed: an adjustable table can serve different
purposes at different heights. From top to bottom, in bedroom,
bathroom, kitchen and hall, Azby Brown presents solutions to the
problems of inner space, illustrated with dozens of full-color
photographs, drawings, and architectural plans.
Small Spaces will be a lifesaver for all those with growing
families, shrinking resources, and limited room to grow-or indeed
anyone who wants to transform a disorganized, cluttered environment
into an orderly, attractive living area.
The Very Small Home is an inspiring new book that surveys the
creative design innovations of small houses in Japan. Eighteen
recently built and unusual houses, from ultramodern to Japanese
rustic, are presented in depth. Particular emphasis is given to
what the author calls the "big idea" for each house-the thing that
does the most to make the home feel more spacious than it actually
is. Big ideas include ingenious sources of natural light, well
thought-out loft spaces, snug but functional kitchens, unobtrusive
partitions, and unobstructed circulation paths.
An introduction puts the houses in the context of lifestyle trends
and highlights their shared characteristics. The Houses section
details each project the intentions of the designers and occupants
are explained. The result is a very human sensibility that runs
through the book, a glimpse of the dreams and aspirations that
these unique homes represent and that belies their apparent
modesty. The second half of the book is devoted to illustrating the
special features in the homes, from storage and kitchen designs to
revolutionary skylights and partitions.
Building small can be a sign of higher ambitions, and those who
read this book will undoubtedly grow to appreciate that building a
small home can be an amazingly positive and creative act, one which
can enhance one's life in surprising ways. In The Very Small Home,
Brown has given home owners, designers, and architects a
fascinating new collection of ideas.
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