Modern Japanese
Area: 180 sqm
This project was a collaboration between myself and HaoRan.
The project adopts contemporary Japanese aesthetics as its core language, integrating modern craftsmanship and design approaches while building upon traditional Japanese elements. It subtly downplays the Eastern wabi-sabi atmosphere often associated with traditional Japanese gardens, instead emphasizing spatial comfort for the user within a modern context, offering a sense of warmth alongside its meditative qualities.
Viewed from the interior, large sliding glass doors create a seamless visual connection between indoors and outdoors. The ground is paved with irregularly laid, large-scale natural golden rust stone; its winding joints guide the eye naturally from the hardscape to the gravel area, forming a clear circulation path. This expansive, irregularly paved platform also accommodates the client's needs for daily gatherings and outdoor dining.
A nuanced material contrast emerges from the interplay of rugged, monolithic stone benches and the gravel expanse with minimalist contemporary outdoor furniture and soft planting. This juxtaposition of "ruggedness and refinement" grants the space a timeless vitality.
The planting scheme avoids excessive layering, placing the visual emphasis toward the rear while allowing the foreground to feature mainly paved stone and gravel with ample negative space, giving the site a sense of breathing room. A deciduous tree with a distinctive sculptural form (such as a maple) serves as the focal point, complemented by shade-tolerant ferns, Agapanthus, and groundcover plants. As seasons change, the interplay of crimson maple leaves and verdant foliage allows the space to express a range of moods across different times of the year.
