Customer Reviews

Measure and Construction of the Japanese House (Contains 250 Floor Plans and Sketches Aspects of Joinery)

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If you are an architect interested in japanese constructional systems, this is THE BOOK for you. If you aren't but find japanese culture a fountain of inspiration for living, you must read this extraordinary piece of art. Perhaps it don't shine like a jewel, but once you open it, you'll find the work of a man who decided to share his mastery. In this book, diagrams, materials, craftmanship, even detailed descriptions of the human space requirements are fully explained with precision and simplicity. Every page, and every example in them, is a world that must be carefully examined. And when doing so, you'll find that what the author is showing us, is more than a book about japanese houses: is the heart of the japanese carpenters and architects living in its pages.

Anyone who wishes to build a Japanese tea room either in the garden or attached to their house could do well to start with this book. You can also use this book to design accents for a single room, or to craft an entire house. It was written by a German architect who lived in Japan several decades ago and carefully measured surving older buildings as well as studying architecture there. While there are more detailed books in Japanese, this may well still be the best available book in English.

The book, taken from the larger volume "The Japanese House: A Tradition for Contemporary Architecture", describes exhaustively how the traditional Japanese house is built.
Every topic from plan layout down to shoji or tokonoma proportions is covered in detail, with amazing technical drawings and lot of examples: you will be able to build your own Japanese house, from foundation stones to the top of the roof.
Particularly interesting are the schemes of joints needed for every part of the house, and the continuos focus on some particular features like modular order, flexibility or standardization.
If you are not used to technical drawings the book may appear a bit complex, since there are no photos illustrating the building, but everything is very well done.
I recommend this book to everyone with a strong technical interest on Japanese traditional buildings.

This great book shows the thought process and technique behind traditional Japanese architecture. Whether you are an architect or simply have an interest in the fine details of this process, this book is one of the best. It is filled with over 56 b/w designs, floor plans, joinery and schematics. As this style of building requires a dedicated apprenticeship, people should not necessarily view it as a "how-to" book, even though it does explain the process in fine detail.

There is excellent coverage of measurement, and I especially like the detailed section on tatami layout. The wealth of floor plans alone justify the purchase. There is also 4-pages worth of b/w scrolls, depicting a palace layout (and one frame displaying some high quality calligraphy), and the "architect's scroll" which shows a fairly comprehensive collections of joints. There are numerous joints shown throughout the book, and together with "The Complete Japanese Joinery" and The Art of Japanese Joinery" anyone interested in this subject should be set.

The book describes what the Japanese house is and how it is built. The author argues that the traditional Japanese house seems better suited as a pattern for contemporary housing than any other residential architecture form. He bases this argument of the following distinctive features:

-modular order of system and form
-flexibility of space partition and room function
-compository potential of tatami mats
-expressive diversity within comprehensive standardization
-integrartive qualities of Japanese design

The book presents considerations of the form, system, and detail of space layout, the dimensions and measurements, and how the various components are combined. The book is great for anyone with an appreciation for this form, but the author seems to have clearly geared it towards architects, whom he challenges to explore this form for integration into modern design.

There are few books that cover the process like this, and I highly recommend it. Be sure to Look inside and check out the table of contents to make sure it is what you are looking for, as this is a technical book that is not for everyone.

When I ordered this book, I was expecting to see a lot of pictures to help me design my house. But to my dismay, most of the colorless pages just feature blueprints that only an architect would understand. I kept the book for future reference.

I am a professor and I use this book to introduce beginning architecture students to working with a grid system and putting a beautiful space together. It is actually an excerpt from a very old and hard to find volume, which I have seen and I would have to say that this volume does a great job of taking the essentials of how to design and construct a Japanese structure and making it extremely affordable. There are lots of scaled drawings and diagrams, but no pictures (the bulk of Engels' research and work was done a lifetime ago). Great reference book, but not a glossy coffee table book.

My friend, who is getting her Masters in Architecture loved the book. Good usage of pictures to describe the function and form, and yet, technical enough in content so that architecture students can find it useful.

Very happy with my purchase, I am a wood worker & this is a book that I will find useful for future projects. Thank you. Amazon.

This book was a gift for my architect son, and I haven't heard any complaints out of him.