Shigeru Ban's Naked House

I think what makes it so hard for us when buying or building a home are all the paradigms we live with about what a home should be. The people that inspire me the most are those that have dropped their preconceived notions and built a house for the way they really live. A case in point is noted Japanese architect Shigeru Ban's Naked House.



The Naked House is a long translucent box built for a family on a tight budget. Construction techniques were unusual - translucent corrugated plastics outside, nylon sheets inside, and foamed polyethylene stuffed bags sandwiched in between. Inside Ban used imaginative movable structures that evoke small rooms in traditional Japanese homes, complete with tatami mats. The boxes can be rolled to different places in the house depending on what the family needs at any given time. The Naked House offers a cost effective, beautiful, and flexible solution for living. It does so by challenging almost every notion of what a family house should be. Everything a family needs in a home is there, yet the approach is entirely unique.




One thing that continues to draw me back to the house is its translucent exterior. The house glows with soft light, inside and out, day and night. I love translucent materials in homes. Translucent polycarbonate is one of my favorite building materials. There are so many things you can do with it. I'll try to have a post soon with some examples of what I mean.




Ban's Naked House is simply wonderful! I just love it. You can read more about Shigeru Ban in this article by ArchitectureWeek. You can also read about The Naked House in the book The Green House, which I reviewed in an earlier post.

Image Credits - Shigeru Ban site