This is a small analytical project on the Moriyama House in the suburb of Tokyo Japan, designed by Ryue Nishizawa.  In a very broad sense, the Moriyama House relates itself to the Japanese tradition of the minimalism.  Ten cuboids with different floor areas and height are freely distributed across a stretch of the lot.   The 85 mm (less than 3-1/2”) thick load-bearing walls of these cuboids are extremely thin even by Japanese standards.  Within the wall assembly is a layer of steel plates, making large window openings possible. Circulations in the Moriyama House are completely transparent. While cares are taken into avoid direct facing windows and doors, residents of the house and their surrounding neighbors can easily see each other’s activities.  As a result of the disjointed spaces, even the basic daily ritual of taking a bath has become more pronounced, and visible.  Nishizawa explained that his attempt is to “create living spaces typical of Tokyo, where life is not enclosed solely within the indoor space but continues from indoors to garden and alleyways.”

I made a small booklet of diagrams on the Moriyama House.  One of the strengths of the project is how I decided to make the booklet the actual width of the Moriyama House assembly.  During my research, article after article praised the house’s thin walls, but all they presented was a number.  And if any drawings were shown, they were much too small to read.  When a read holds the booklet in hand, the thinness of the walls is instantaneously tangible.