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Here is a photo report from a typical Japanese apartment.
More precisely, from an ordinary bathroom in an average Japanese apartment.
The author of the photographs and text is Natalya Sobolevskaya, who lives in Japan.
I live in a house that was built in 2008. But such a device is typical for many houses under 20 years old (and I changed five apartments during my stay in Japan and periodically visit). Separately, it should be noted that my apartment is made entirely in European style - I do not have any tatami or sliding walls/wardrobes.
This is probably due to the fact that my apartment is small. In multi-room apartments, at least one bedroom is made in Japanese style. And I love them very much. The smell of new tatami cannot be compared with anything!
So what do I have at home?
The size of the bathroom was visible in the first photo. The bath is small, but normal by Japanese standards. I’m quite compact, but I can’t stretch my legs in it either. It's true that I don't like taking a bath. That's why she still stands idle. Only good for growing mold :) In the other two apartments I had almost full-size European bathtubs. So there are options. There is a latch visible on the door, with which you can lock the door from the inside so that no one can break into the room while washing. There are shelves built into the wall, but what woman would have enough of such two small shelves? :) Therefore, I put everything that doesn’t fit there on the sides of the bathtub and on the floor.
There is a mirror attached to the wall. I wash while standing, so most often I look at my knees. In general, its height is adjusted taking into account the fact that the Japanese most often wash themselves while sitting on special bath chairs. You can also see that there is a special mount for the shower below, for those who wash while sitting.
Standard mixer. The regulator on the right allows you to switch the water supply to the tap or to the hose. On the left is the temperature regulator. On this regulator, all water with temperatures up to 40 degrees is indicated in blue, hotter water is indicated in red. Some faucets may have degrees marked on them. Next to the lever there is a button that needs to be pressed if you want to increase the temperature and get boiling water over 40 degrees at the output. This is apparently done to avoid accidental burns. Such mixers have become incredibly spoiled. I get very annoyed if I find myself somewhere where there are separate cold and hot water taps and I have to try to get the desired temperature by adjusting the pressures. Either I’ve forgotten how to do this, or it’s really more difficult if the water is heated by gas, but someone’s mother definitely gets the hiccups when I do this :)
Water in the house can be controlled using two computers. The first one is most often installed in the kitchen. The display shows the temperature. You can set it yourself, and this will be the maximum temperature at which the water in the apartment will be heated. You can also set 2 separate temperatures. For example, for a bath it is 43 degrees, and for a shower and kitchen - 40. The computer will regulate the heating itself, depending on where the water is supplied. Since I don’t take a bath, I only have one temperature. In winter it is good to wash at 41 degrees, in summer it can be hot even at 38 :) Here you can also set a timer for setting the bath. When the bath is full, a sweet female voice will definitely inform you about it. I wouldn't be surprised if this device can do something else. But apparently I don't need it :)
This computer is installed in the bathroom. By the way, both have a button that lights up bright pink. The light is on, indicating that the system is working. By pressing this button, you can turn off the heating. This is used by those who, for example, save money and wash dishes with cold water. Usually water from the bathroom can be used for washing, but I admit, I have never used this function. Some baths have heated water. You can let it sit for an hour and the water won’t get cold. This is very convenient when several family members wash after each other. To avoid questions, I’ll say right away that no one gets into the bathtub dirty. Everyone first washes in the shower on a chair, and then sits down to warm the bones. Therefore, cases of dirt floating in the water after someone are excluded. There are also bathtub “lids” that can be used to cover a bathtub with hot water so that it does not cool down.
In the dressing room there is a switch for the hood, which can operate in two modes. In winter, it’s true that no one can cope: if in summer you can go without washing the bathtub for a very long time, then in winter the dampness does its dirty work in a week or two, and mold appears in places. The first year in Japan I still couldn’t figure out what this pink crap was. But since we were constantly cleaning the bath anyway, it didn't bother us.
Toilet. Heated lids are now available in almost all relatively new houses. So are air conditioners. In old houses you have to buy your own. It is very convenient that there is a small washbasin in the toilet. There you can wash your hands with the water that will then end up in the tank anyway. From the point of view of economy, there is also a regulator for the amount of flushed water. There is no need to empty the whole tank every time.
What's on the handle with the buttons? Red on/off button. “Wash your hands front and back” - this is just about Japanese toilets. You can choose what to wash - front or back. There is a pressure regulator. You can also adjust the water and seat temperature. In winter, the toilet is the warmest part of a Japanese home. You can come, sit and meditate. In summer, it is logical to reduce the temperature to a minimum, and in winter to set it to maximum. By the way, the photo shows the sensor. If you do not close it and press down the lid, the sink will not work. I tried it :) The computer is not stupid and understands that no one is sitting. And if you close the sensor, for example, with your foot, which presses the lid on it, then you can still create a fountain :) By the way, this is not the only model of this miracle of technology, so in terms of functionality, options are possible.
The inscriptions are larger for those who read Japanese and who are very interested :)
By the way, this is what the tubes that come out look like if you order a partial wash. The water will flow at different distances and at different angles, so apparently it really makes sense to make 2 separate zones.
There, in the toilet, there is a sign with machine guns. The whole apartment is divided into zones. There are also separate switches for the washing machine and air conditioner.
Connector for connecting a washing machine. In Russia, connecting a machine seemed to me something labor-intensive. Those machines, however, wash with hot water. Maybe that's why. In Japan everything is simple.
Intercom. I only use two buttons: “Talk” and “Open door”. This is quite enough to allow guests and various delivery services into the house. The intercom combines the functions of a security system. While trying to study it, we accidentally pressed a button that sends a message to the building control panel that there is unauthorized entry into the apartment. It was Saturday morning. Until Monday morning there was no house manager, and there was no one to disconnect the call. For 2 days, during any attempt to open the front door, a siren sounded throughout the entire floor, and all residents in the building were informed that someone was trying to break into one of the apartments. I found a PIN code to disable it, but not right away. On Monday, the guys from the security came and said that you don’t need to press anything except the “Talk” and “Open the door” buttons. After that, my research instinct completely disappeared :)
Ventilation in the room. It needs to be opened if the hood in the bathroom is on. There will be a draft. If you don't open it, there will be a whistle when the hood is on. Mold still grows in the bathroom because in the summer you can easily create drafts all day long, and the apartment dries out quickly. In winter, you will think 3 more times before opening all the holes for at least half an hour. There is also a mount for the remote control for the air conditioner. We really missed something like this in Russia for a TV remote control. How many of them have we managed to transfer at home over the past few years...
In the lower right corner you can see a small translucent thing. They are pasted throughout the apartment, where some doors and doors could potentially scratch the wallpaper on the walls. Very comfortably!
UPD: they suggest that this is a temperature sensor. 65 is actually the permissible temperature.
Residents of Japan do not often invite guests to their homes, and they have reasons for this: the Japanese are embarrassed to show where and how they live, because many houses are not so nice. And secondly, this is not accepted in their mentality.
But the family I know from Osaka don’t have any special complexes about this, and barmoska decided to visit their apartment and make a detailed photo report.
Ordinary pictures that show how the Japanese live.
1. Let's introduce ourselves, on the left is Kimura-san and on the right is his wife, Eri-chan. They invited me to enter their house.
2. Their entrance. Their car, a Daihatsu, is parked outside.
3. They still have an internal parking space under the house, but if they leave the house for a short time, they leave the car at the emergency exit.
4. This is what the emergency entrance looks like. The video intercom is also here. 
5. There are not many floors, but in this city all the apartments are multi-size.
6. Mailboxes and a drinks vending machine are installed at the emergency entrance.
7. Hanging white boxes are places for storing undelivered parcels and parcels. Now they are in all new houses. How does this system work? Let's say I'm a resident of apartment number 402, I'm waiting for a parcel with the Black Cat courier service. When I left the house, the courier arrived.
He called the intercom, but when he realized that I was not at home, he left the parcel in one of the white boxes and wrote down my apartment number, and then wrote this notice: “So, they say, and so, I arrived and didn’t find you at home, I put the parcel in box number 1.”
After reading the notice, I go up to this machine, apply my computer key to the entrance - the computer sees that the key to apartment number 402, and opens the box in which my parcel lies.
8. After the main entrance, the interior of the main entrance appears before us. You can sit here while waiting for friends.
9. Video intercom of the main entrance in a close-up.
10. Interesting decorations.
11. For safety, on the first floors of buildings, there is a display near the elevator showing a picture from the cabin.
12. The picture quality is excellent.
13. The elevator is comfortable and the signs are in English.
14. In many apartments, the windows open onto a common balcony. Everything is closed with iron shutters.
15. This is what the entrance to the apartment looks like - a lamp with a number, a lamp that illuminates the floor at night, an intercom. A handle to hang an umbrella or bag while opening the door.
16. And here is the apartment itself. On the right is the white threshold where everyone leaves their shoes - this is the entrance. Then from the corridor you go into the rest of the apartment. There is a closet in the hallway.
17. If you turn half a turn, you can see - On the left is the entrance to a small room, straight ahead is the entrance to the toilet.
18. The apartment has a small living room, in which there is a desk, a TV, a futon (they sleep on the floor), and a large closet. The lamps are all LED, large in diameter. There are even sockets on the ceiling.
19. The door that was straight. Here, as you can see, there is a toilet. The bathroom and toilet are always separate in Japan. Now new homes are installing toilets with remote controls.
20. After photo number 17, the corridor turned to the right. There are three doors here. The door on the left is the door to the bathroom (the first part of it). The door leads directly into the living room and kitchen. The door on the right is another small room. Let's see what's there?
21. Another living room, but it serves as a storage place for all sorts of junk.
22. Now let's go straight through the door from photo 20, which leads into the living room and kitchen. On the left there are light switches in all rooms, in the middle there is a control panel for gas and hot water in the bathroom, on the right there is an intercom.
23. Next is the kitchen, where the hostess prepares a simple lunch. From the kitchen you can access a small balcony. A large side-by-side refrigerator, a hood above the stove, cabinets for storing utensils, and a large saucepan in plain view. Behind the refrigerator is a door leading to the bathroom. There are two entrances to the bathroom - one from the corridor (photo number 20), and the second from the kitchen.
24. Door to the kitchen balcony.
25. What is in the bathroom. Large sink, mirrored cabinets for storing cosmetic products. On the left on the wall is an auxiliary control panel for the bathroom - the functions of the dryer, sauna or air conditioner can be controlled from here. The door is reflected in the mirror into the bathroom itself.
26. There is a washing machine on the left, a little to the right you can see the door to the hall.
27. And this is the bathroom. What a beauty. Pay attention to the shower head and floor. In Japan, it is customary to take a shower not in the bathroom itself, but while standing (or sitting) here, on this rough plastic. There is a drain for water (a small hatch under the bathtub). The mirror reflects two control panels - one for the bathroom, the second for other functions (sauna, etc.).
28. Let's go back to the living room. Directly behind you, if you look at photo 23, is the entrance to the main bedroom. This is the master bedroom. The room is large, spacious, with a European bed, computer desk, wardrobes, and access to the loggia.
29. There is a small sofa in the living room.
30. Nightstands with the owner’s “treasures” are located to the left of the sofa. Comics, tea book, family photos.
31. A young couple got married quite recently; they had been dating for a year and a half before that. They work in the same company in the same position - managers. We met at work. You can see a small wedding photo, the bride in a red dress.
32. There is an armchair and a chest of drawers with festive dishes against the wall opposite.
33. To the right of the sofa is a TV and PlayStation 3.
34. Well, what about without toys?
35. Behind the TV on the wall there are hatches for supply and forced ventilation. The air in the apartment is very clean and fresh.
36. There are air conditioners in every room.
37. Here is the entrance to the second loggia (shared with the master bedroom). All doors are sliding. In cold weather it can be chilly.
38. All balconies and houses have washbasins with running water - to make it easier to care for flowers.
39. Japanese houses are all with bells and whistles. For example, a wireless robot vacuum cleaner, which is very popular in Russia.
40. For lunch they had a large assortment of sushi, cold water with ice and rolls.
41. Not everything can be eaten
42. And he ate everything
43. The Japanese prefer to put whatever they want on their phone.
Apartment search
For a long time, a trip to Japan was a small adventure for a Russian. It was necessary to contact a special agency to collect documents for a visa, book Japanese hotels of at least three stars, and canceling or rescheduling their reservations was not allowed. Recently, relations between countries have improved, visas have become free and it is much easier to obtain. For visa documents, I started providing apartment reservations on Air BBC, which was strictly not allowed before. A visa is issued without any problems, although the service itself is prohibited in Japan.
I'll show you a few apartments I've stayed in over the years.
Let's start with the entrance to the entrance. Usually the doors to the hall are glass, sliding, with a sensor. To open them, you need to insert a regular key into the control panel in the pedestal. The remote control also serves as a video intercom.
To the right of the pedestal are mailboxes.
The boxes are pass-through. The postman throws the correspondence through the slot, and the tenant takes it through the door on the back side, passing through the glass doors into the hall. It must be admitted that in Tokyo they spam in mailboxes no less than in any other country.
For large shipments and parcels from online stores, there is such a storage room. The courier leaves the box and the tenant picks it up afterwards.
The Japanese love elevators; you can’t get them on foot even to the second floor. Pets are generally not allowed in homes. But if there is a dog in the house, then at the request of the residents there will be a separate “meal with the dog” next to the regular call button. Then the corresponding diagram will light up above the window indicating the movement on each floor. So those who are afraid of dogs will not sit in a booth with a dog walker, they will wait and call the elevator for themselves.
The information board near the elevator is covered with meaningless messages like “keep quiet”, which the Japanese put up everywhere for no reason.
This is what a floor of apartments in an apartment building looks like.
A typical entrance is open (the opening is not closed with glass or a vestibule with a door, as is customary in Russia). There are no frosts in Tokyo, so there is nothing to be afraid of. Recently there was a typhoon here, and there was a puddle in the entrance on the floor. Well, nothing, they say, it will dry out.
Handle on the front door. There are usually two locks on it: at the top and bottom of the handle. Nearby is a doorbell with a microphone, which is output to the video intercom in the apartment (nothing special: a familiar-looking telephone with a monitor - open the door to the entrance and communicate with the visitor without opening the lock).
And this is what the same structure looks like inside the apartment. No matter how many apartments I rent, there are always two locks. Why is it unclear: so that a thief would spend twice as much time breaking into something?
Sizes and price of the apartment
Welcome! The entire apartment has an area of 20 sq.m. - with a corridor, a bathroom, a toilet, a balcony, a couple of storage rooms and a room for a washing machine. Sorry for some of the chaos in the photo: I specifically decided to show what a tiny apartment turns into in conditions where you are not accustomed to minimalism in everyday life in the Japanese sense.
The first couple of days in such an apartment, Europeans and Russians suffer from acute attacks of claustrophobia. But after a month you get used to it: you know where to put things and how to sit together to work on the bed. The only negative that is difficult to deal with is the small volume of air. If you hang your shirt out to dry, after just a couple of hours the atmosphere in the apartment resembles a bathhouse (only cooled down).
The glass in the apartment is reinforced. In the event of an earthquake they will not fly apart. The windows in the photo are not dirty, they are just very foggy from high humidity (and this despite the fact that there is a vent hole in the wall - cross ventilation; there is no point at all, it only helps to open the window).
About prices. It’s possible to rent such housing for 2-3 thousand rubles a day (at one time I rented exactly the same one for 180 thousand yen a month - that’s about 90 thousand rubles). And after living like this for a month or two, I wouldn’t recommend renting small apartments like mine (unless you want to get an ethnographic experience) - you’ll be exhausted from the habit. It's better to take a hostel.
Here is a premium Japanese apartment in Osaka - lighter, more spacious and, naturally, more expensive. Relatively high ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows, built-in air conditioning system. Such an apartment already costs 3-4 thousand rubles per night. If you can spend that kind of money, don’t hesitate to rent it, it will be better and more soulful than a small hotel room.
Here is a bedroom in such an apartment. A minimum of furnishings, for the entire interior decoration - only sofa cushions.
If we talk about places to store things, then there are almost none - the closet resembles the one we are used to seeing in the locker room of a sports club: there is enough space for a couple of hangers, there are no shelves or drawers. In a couple of weeks, you get used to the “suitcase” system (linen and folded items are stored in plastic boxes with lids, which are placed in a stack at the bottom of the closet). At the same time, you get used to folding and neatly folding any object.
Let's go to the kitchen. The Japanese adapt their homes well to earthquakes - for example, they hang kitchen cabinets so that they do not fly off their mountings during shaking. Please note that there is no gap between the box and the ceiling, this is done just so that it does not “jump off”.
The safest place during an earthquake is inside a building. Japanese houses can withstand magnitude 8 shocks without destruction, only swaying characteristically. But on the street a pole or advertising structure may fall.
The Japanese are so accustomed to shocks that they calmly roll over on their other side in their sleep or raise their glasses at the bar to prevent them from spilling. A year ago, I was caught in a magnitude 5 earthquake in Tokyo - the house shook with noticeable amplitude, throwing things around the apartment. Incredible, chthonic horror.
In Japan, there are no traditional ovens like ours. Instead, there is a small plate (here it is under the hob) into which a sandwich can hardly fit.
Japanese bathroom. With my height of 190 cm it is difficult to stand in it. As soon as you turn around, soap and brushes fly off the shelf.
Any Japanese bathroom is sealed: it is customary to wash it after yourself with a shower - everything flows into the drain hole in the floor. A bathtub (font) is essentially a narrow shower stall with high sides. The Japanese traditionally wash in it, sitting on a stool.
This is the simplest bathroom I've ever seen. There is no flush - a simple, familiar toilet that flushes with a terrible roar. The shower is connected to the sink faucet.
But the bathroom in an expensive apartment. It is important to note that the bathtub in Japan is used specifically for taking a bath (lying down). It is impossible to wash in it while standing, as we are used to, as the shower does not reach. If you need to rinse off, place the chair in the bath and sit on it. Or wash in the shower while standing on the floor.
The bathroom in a traditional Japanese house is closer to the bathhouse, onsen. The bathtub becomes larger and deeper, but, again, it is a place for enjoying hot water, where you are supposed to get into it already washed.
And finally, a photo from a very traditional Japanese house, of which there are many in rural areas. There is only a small screen for furniture. There are rugs on the floor tatami, the blue thing in the corner is an extremely thin and hard mattress futon. It is painful for a Westerner to sleep in such a house. This morning a poem came to mind:
“I crawled under the blanket.
Hard, cold and small.”
In any case, Japanese housing is a unique cultural and ergonomic experience that I advise everyone to get.
barmoska writes on September 1, 2014Since my long-ago blog post about visiting a Japanese family's apartment, I have been asked several times about apartment-related topics - how much do they cost in Japan, what kind of houses are there, etc. With today's material I will answer some of these questions :-)
1. So, let's start in order.... 
2. A residential mansion in the center of Osaka was chosen as the home for this photo report. It has not yet been built, but like all Japanese showrooms of residential buildings, it has already been partially “embodied” inside this small building. Actually, any new residential building in Japan is sold in the following offices: 
3. First, I was shown a movie in a small cozy room, more like a private cinema in the house of an American rich man. The movie talked about what a wonderful new building it was, what kind of environment it was in, etc., etc. I didn’t take pictures in the cinema hall, so this photo is from the next room. It shows a model of the house itself in great detail: 
4. The model shows the location of the cardinal directions so that people can roughly imagine where north and south are. The entrance to the house itself is connected to the city metro line passing below: 
5. There will be a small garden in the open area near the house. The surrounding area for such large houses in Japan is rarely fenced: 
6. The light board shows the schematic location of the house: 
7. Since Japan has problems with earthquakes, underground parking lots are not often dug. This happens either only in very expensive houses or in shopping centers. In new buildings of this type, automatic parking lots are located in the house itself and, as can be seen on the back side of the house, they rise to the level of the 24th floor: 
8. After the general information, the manager moves on to the most interesting part and takes me to the second floor of the office. Two apartments of different sizes have been created there, completely copying those that will be in the new house. At the entrance to the second floor, shoes must be taken off; slippers are prepared for this case :-) For children - small ones: 
9. Everything is done exactly as it will be in a new building. Carpeting, panels on the walls - all this will be in the house. Entrance to a two-room apartment with a total area of 64 sq. m. meters: 
10. Unfortunately, I don’t have a wide lens, so I’ll try to explain what and how with sketchy photos :-) The picture shows a large room. Of course, all the equipment and furniture are not included with the apartment, but are simply placed here for furnishings: 
11. There is a small kitchen behind me. Well, it’s small - about 5 square meters. It is implied that they will only cook here, not eat: 
12. Video intercom, control of heated floors and alarm on the wall at the entrance to the large room: 
13. Another angle of the large room. I don’t know why, but in this sample apartment the designer created a glass wall between the bedroom and the large room: 
14. By the way, the view outside the windows is reproduced exactly as it will be after the house is built: 
15. Balcony. Wide and spacious. The truth is separated from the neighbor's by a small partition: 
16. Bedroom: 
17. From the bedroom you can go through a small dressing room to the bathroom: 
18. Bathroom. On the left is space for a washing machine. All storage boxes are already included in the price of the apartment: 
19.
20. And this is what the shower itself looks like: 
21. A place for reflection:-)))) Toilet control panel on the wall on the left: 
22. Mini washbasin: 
23. Hallway. Little things like lighting under the cabinet are also included in the price: 
24. Now let’s look at the interiors of a three-room apartment with a larger area, 97 square meters: 
25. I didn’t photograph the entire apartment, but only some parts of it, but you can get a rough idea :-) The picture shows a small room adjacent to the bedroom: 
26. Bedroom: 
27.
28. And this is a large living room-kitchen with a total area of 40 square meters: 
29.
30. Open kitchen: 
31. Immediately behind the kitchen there is a small mini-office - pantry: 
32. Large panoramic windows: 
33. Two washbasins: 
34. If desired, you can install a TV in the bathroom: 
35. The toilet control panel is a little different. Unfortunately, even in a large apartment there is still only one bathroom: 
36. One of the most important questions is how are these buildings protected from earthquakes? There are two options. The first is that the shock-absorbing system is built in the center of the house in the form of a rod to which shock absorbers are attached. The second is that shock absorbers are made on a concrete base in the foundation of the house. This new building implements the second option (right). This model clearly shows on the water how everything will shake during a magnitude 6-7 earthquake: 
37. Schematic representation of an earthquake damping system: 
38. Also in the photo you can see public areas. The building on the ground floors will house a cafe for apartment owners, a lounge, guest rooms, and a gym: 
39. The guest room is another distinctive feature of such Japanese new buildings. For a small fee of $30-$60 (depending on room type), your guests can stay overnight. It's cheaper than hotels in the area, and the rooms are much more spacious: 
40. Each floor has a special storage room with water, supplies and all sorts of necessary items in case of any unforeseen situations: 
41. Security of the entire perimeter of the house and inside it is carried out 24 hours a day: 
42. Helipad at the top in case of unforeseen situations, again. The doors to the apartments are made in such a way that they will not warp and will not become an obstacle during evacuation: 
43. You can choose the interior colors of your apartment in a special hall. The color of parquet, doors, finishing panels and surfaces can be chosen to suit your taste. Finishing is included in the price of the apartment: 
44. A small stand demonstrating the multi-layer structure of the apartment floor. Sound transmission is very low: 
45. At the virtual stand you can see what different finishing options for different rooms will look like in reality. Compare this photo with the next one: 
46.
47. Or for example a large kitchen-living room with decoration.... 
48. And without: 
In short, these are all the photos from this trip :-) What was left behind the scenes....
On the virtual stand you can see all the details about the house, starting from the view from the window of each (!) apartment on each (!) floor, ending with the shadow that neighboring buildings cast on the house at different times of the day.
At the prices of apartments - in this building there are apartments from 40 meters to 150 meters. The most average one-room apartment of 50 square meters will cost about 350 thousand dollars, while penthouses cost about 1.5-1.8 million dollars.
So that you don’t think that these are exorbitant prices, I can say 350 thousand dollars in Osaka is the average price of a one-room apartment of 50-60 meters in a new house. Moreover, it is clear that a large apartment in this case will be located far from the city center.
Banks give loans for these apartments for different terms, but mostly 30 years. Rates are about 1.5-2% per annum! This is even lower than in many American banks.
The average rent in a house is $150-200 per month. Electricity, water and internet are paid separately. The cost of parking depends on what kind of vehicle you will park. For example, a bicycle costs 3 dollars a month. Motorcycle $20 per month. A car is about 200-300 dollars a month depending on the size of the car.
It turns out that there are an abundance of obsolete apartments not only in Russia, but also in advanced Japan. The Bakoko duo wittily modernized the Japanese analogue of “Khrushcheba”.
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On the picture:
Japanese Bakoko designer Kayoko Otsuki described the essence of national design as “keeping things clean.” The Japanese are extremely reserved people who do not like showiness and do not like to show off their lives. For them, good design is characterized by extreme, if not exaggerated, simplicity, and high quality filling and finishing always comes first. This approach became the starting point in creating the interior.
Information about the object:
Location: Matsudo, Japan
Year: 2009
Footage: 37 sq. m
Architects: BAKOKO
Alastair Townsend and Kayoko Ohtsuki
Photo: BAKOKO
In the photo: BAKOKO, architects
The young English-Japanese duo Bakoko came up with a beautiful, simple and laconic option for transforming an apartment of the “man-shi-yon” type: tiny residential apartments in multi-apartment panel buildings that appeared in abundance in the post-war years. Everywhere in Japan it is believed that this housing is noticeably outdated, however, there is no rush to update it: here they prefer to demolish the old one and build a new, more earthquake-resistant structure, bringing to life interesting designs of small apartments. A successful option for rebuilding a “man-shi-yon” apartment for Japan is the same revelation as our option for conveniently rebuilding an apartment in a “Khrushchev”: everyone dreams, but for most it seems almost impossible to implement - is it really possible to do something with housing that outdated in all respects? As Bakoko’s practice shows, you shouldn’t give up: in the hands of young designers, an old apartment has turned into a compact, but 100% modern studio.
View of the apartment "before". The peculiarity of apartments of this type is the combination of Japanese interior traditions (the almost complete absence of furniture and interior walls, which are replaced here by sliding fusuma partitions) with a completely European furnishings in the kitchen.
The main thing that the architects did was to abandon the partitions dividing the apartment. Now it is small, and snow-white partitions are located along the walls, like wardrobe doors, and cover everything that is unnecessary from the point of view of a laconic Japanese interior: from a full-fledged dressing room and a large mirror the entire height of the room to a mini-office.
The European-looking kitchen is separated from the rest of the studio by a bar counter, above which the designers picturesquely placed white calla lilies. In addition, the division into zones is emphasized by an illuminated protruding beam (technologically necessary here).
The kitchen is functional in a European way and restrained in a Japanese way. The cabinets reach right up to the ceiling, so not a single centimeter of valuable space in this part of the apartment is wasted.
Almost the only bright, and therefore very attractive, finishing detail: the red niche in which the desktop is located. Chairs are moved towards him from the bar counter.
Next to the niche is a huge mirror that spans the entire height of the room. Here you can see how the part of the studio covered with tatami is reflected in it.
The apartment has preserved traditional interior solutions. The new tatami designated a multifunctional space for relaxation, contemplation and even traditional eating during the day (a low table is used for this).
In addition, this part of the studio also plays the role of a bedroom: a traditional futon mattress is laid out here, which is rolled up for the day and put away in a spacious built-in closet behind the tatami.
The doors to the bathroom and bathroom do not stand out in any way on the white surface of the wall.
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The interior of the apartment with an area of only 21 sq.m. is made in Scandinavian style. At the request of the owners, Victoria Bondarchuk worked with the existing layout, trying to optimize the space as much as possible.
Clients Michelle and Andy came to the LAAB design office with a long list of wishes and a ton of plans for their tiny apartment in the center of Hong Kong.
While working on the design of a small apartment in central London, the designers took an unconventional path - they decided to play up its small size. The result is a comfortable space in an urban style.
The apartment, seemingly ridiculous in size - only 13 square meters - can accommodate everything an active city dweller needs. And at the same time remain surprisingly spacious and functional.
How to do without a boring sofa bed in a one-room apartment, leave the space uncluttered and at the same time have plenty of storage space?
Three golden rules that will help you avoid mistakes when decorating small apartments in a modern style. Architect Pyotr Fedoseenko tells.
Apartments on the ground floor are sold 10-15 percent cheaper than their counterparts on the upper floors. How to turn a bad location into an advantage? Let's look at Natalia Oleksienko's most interesting project.
By combining several zones and using light finishes, a spacious studio with picturesque Mediterranean decor and unusual finishing details was created on the small area of the former two-room apartment.
To turn a small, cozy apartment into a larger one, it’s not enough to remove the partitions. How to increase space without losing soulfulness - in Audron Abraziene’s project “Between the Trees”.
Designer Marina Sargsyan plays not only with space, but also with time: despite the fact that all the rooms in the compact two-room apartment are decorated in a classic style, time flows differently everywhere.
To turn a one-room apartment into a two-room apartment, you must first turn it into a studio. Minimalistic loft in St. Petersburg - in the project of designer Maria Vasilenko.
You won’t envy the newlyweds - they still have to get used to each other in the conditions of our apartments: all corners and cramped spaces. To make rubbing in more pleasant, it is better to remove the corners and increase the space.
How to remove a supporting column in an apartment without touching it and create an isolated bedroom in the studio - in Larisa Nikitenko’s project “A woman’s view of a man’s interior.”
Nature lovers love to grow ficus with tradescantia on the windowsill, but they could green the house in a day and forget about watering and fertilizing for many years.
The recipe for a spacious apartment in Spanish: you need to erase planes, borders, cliches and stereotypes from the interior, and then lay out the floor, walls, ceiling and even furniture with ceramic tiles.
It is known that color gives liveliness and brightness to the interior. Designer Alexander Voshev agrees with this. Only he paints his projects in bright colors not with the help of paints, but with the help of light.
The young couple decided to settle in the historical center of the city, but they only had enough money for a miniature apartment without a bathroom: a real professional challenge for an architect and designer.
In this home of a professional jazz musician, there was a place not only for all the areas and things necessary in everyday life, but also for “excesses”: a real fireplace, a piano and even a spectator “tribune”.
The initial layout is sometimes so unsuccessful that the architect needs to show remarkable ingenuity so that no one remembers about the unsuccessful proportions and modest scale.
Who would have thought that almost without changing the layout, this three-room Khrushchev house would look so spacious that any inhabitant of a “large-sized apartment” would be jealous.
