And yet a closer scrutiny reveals impressively subtle touches. Carefully crafted wooden surfaces throughout the home gleam with a delicate Japanese sense of color and rhythm. The kitchen and living areas are outfitted with modern appliances or furniture, yet the subtle variations in the wall placement and space usage suggest that a different sensibility is at work here.
Azby Brown, in his third book on the architecture of Japan, delves into the intricacies of the modern Japanese home by first reaching back some thousand years to its roots to follow its development to the present day. He then steams ahead to explore the state-of-the art Japanese home, with its recycled materials, extruded 30-foot-long woodlike stairway handrails, and dozens of