Domestic dynasty: the Japanese house since 1945

Tracing the development of residential architecture in Japan since 1945, a new exhibition opening today at MAXXI in Rome brings together the projects by over 30 Japanese architects. Alongside works by filmmakers and artists, ‘The Japanese House: Architecture & Life after 1945’ explores the relevance of the home to the cultural landscape of the nation and beyond.
Unable to masterplan larger housing schemes due to the country's dire postwar economy, local architects defined the decades following 1945 in Japan by creating smaller, single dwellings that were built and demolished at equal rates. Life-sized representations of fragments from milestone pieces of architecture, such as the now demolished House U by Toyo Ito and Shigeru Ban’s temporary emergency shelter structures, provide insight into the range of projects from that time.
Leek House by Terunobu Fujimori, completed in 1997.
Soon, family homes became the building blocks of Japan’s iconic urban landscape; hybrid vehicles of the developing relationship between tradition and modernity. Kenzo Tange’s 1951 modularly structured Wooden Houses were based around the tatami room and its central position in the traditional Japanese home. The timber structures, built with indigenous wood, remain loyal to the country's traditions, while experimenting with modernity. Similarly, Kiyonori Kikutake’s stilted concrete Sky House from 1958, combined shapes from nature with contemporary architectural engineering. Homes such as these pioneered the domestic space as a progressive philosophical zone.
Curated by Pippo Ciorra, MAXXI's senior curator of architecture, the exhibition was born from an idea of Kenjiro Hosaka, curator of the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, and Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, co-founder of Atelier Bow-Wow. It also includes alternative representations of residences from the period, such as videos and manga, switching up the perspective from architect, to dweller, to dreamer, and finding a way to exhibit the complex creative relationship between the Japanese house and popular culture.
House NA by Sou Fujimoto Architects in Tokyo, Japan, completed in 2011.
O House by Hideyuki Nakayama completed in 2009
Pony Garden by Atelier Bow-Wow.
Moriyama House by Office of Ryue Nishizawa, completed in 2005.
Split Machiya by Atelier Bow-Wow.
INFORMATION
’The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945’ is on view until 26 February 2017. For more information, visit the MAXXI Rome website
ADDRESS
Via Guido Reni 4A
00196 Rome
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Harriet Thorpe is a writer, journalist and editor covering architecture, design and culture, with particular interest in sustainability, 20th-century architecture and community. After studying History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Journalism at City University in London, she developed her interest in architecture working at Wallpaper* magazine and today contributes to Wallpaper*, The World of Interiors and Icon magazine, amongst other titles. She is author of The Sustainable City (2022, Hoxton Mini Press), a book about sustainable architecture in London, and the Modern Cambridge Map (2023, Blue Crow Media), a map of 20th-century architecture in Cambridge, the city where she grew up.
-
The great American museum boom
Nine of the world’s top ten most expensive, recently announced cultural projects are in the US. What is driving this investment, and is this statistic sustainable?
-
Here’s how Heathrow is reimagining airport chaos as ambient music
Grammy-nominated Jordan Rakei turns travel noise into a meditative soundtrack by sampling everything from baggage belts to jet engines
-
Wallpaper* checks into Gansevoort Meatpacking, an art-filled hotel that mirrors the district’s glow-up
This sharp, stylish New York hotel is a fixture in its neighbourhood, where boutiques, restaurants and clubs have long since taken over spaces once occupied by slaughterhouses
-
Mayumi Miyawaki’s Fukumura Cottage puts this lesser-known Japanese modernist in the spotlight
Discover the little-known modernist architect through this private home in Japan’s Tochigi prefecture countryside
-
A Karuizawa house is a soothing, work-from-home retreat in Japan
Takeshi Hirobe Architects play with scale and space, creating a tranquil residence in which to live and work
-
Naoshima New Museum of Art is a home for Asian art, and a lasting legacy, in Seto Inland Sea
The Naoshima New Museum of Art opens, marking a seminal addition to the Japanese island's renowned Benesse Art Site Naoshima; we explore Tadao Ando's design
-
Behind a contemporary veil, this Kyoto house has tradition at its core
Designed by Apollo Architects & Associates, a Kyoto house in Uji City is split into a series of courtyards, adding a sense of wellbeing to its residential environment
-
Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa on harmony, nature and their RIBA gong
The SANAA duo are celebrating their RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2025 in London today, and talked to us about self-reflection, the year ahead, and the need to create harmony in our environment
-
New book 'I-IN' brings together Japanese heritage and minimalist architecture at its finest
Japanese architecture studio I-IN flaunts its expert command of 21st-century minimalism in a new book by Frame Publishers
-
Giant rings! Timber futurism! It’s the Osaka Expo 2025
The Osaka Expo 2025 opens its microcosm of experimental architecture, futuristic innovations and optimistic spirit; welcome to our pick of the global event’s design trends and highlights
-
2025 Expo Osaka: Ireland is having a moment in Japan
At 2025 Expo Osaka, a new sculpture for the Irish pavilion brings together two nations for a harmonious dialogue between place and time, material and form