Villa Meijendel / VVKH architecten. Image © Christian van der Kooy
Ancestral, vernacular, and minimalist. For many, these three words have come to define the architecture of Japan, a country that has served as a source of cultural and technological inspiration to countless cultures.
In recent decades, popular Japanese techniques have spread throughout the world, not only in the field of technology but also in technical and artistic areas. In architecture, the appropriation and reinvention of different materials and construction techniques, such as the carbonization of wooden facades, has been a continuing theme.