The Japanese House

Between tradition and innovation the architecture of the Japanese house recounts an entire culture.

Co-organized by the Japan Foundation, Tokyo and MAXXI – the National Museum of 21st Century Arts, Rome, and coproduced by the Japan Foundation, MAXXI, Barbican Centre and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, this exhibition describes the importance of house design in Japan through the work of archistars such as Kenzo Tange, Toyo Ito, Kazuyo Sejima and Shigeru Ban, as well as their masters less well known in the west such as Shirai, Shinohara, Sakamoto and extraordinarily promising youngsters. 

A combination of architectural tradition and innovation, of nature and artifice, ancient and technological advanced materials: the domestic space is the key to the entire metropolitan culture of contemporary Japan.

The exhibition presents the essential aspects of the Japanese house, revealing the expressive richness of the designs and their capacity for creating an unexpected harmony between man, building and context. Drawings, models, period and contemporary photographs, videos, interviews, film clips, mangas and works by artists make up the exhibition along with full-size models of fragments and sections of particularly significant buildings, in an installation designed by Atelier Bow-Wow in collaboration with the museum.