WIth crowded living conditions in Japan, architects and designers have looked at innovative solutions to the country’s urban design challenges. Since the 1970s when Japan experienced its second baby boom, new ideas in providing permanent and temporary living environments, such as Tokyo’s Nakagin Capsule Tower and the Capsule Inn Osaka, both designed by Kisho Kurokawa, took shape and attempted to show alternative approaches to the design and use of the rarest of Japanese commodities: space.
It’s common knowledge that Japan, with its population of more than 127 million people, is a crowded country. In Tokyo, where conditions are at their most extreme, there are around 4000 people per square kilometer. Space is at a premium. Evidence of how the Japanese approach the design of their cramped environment is all around: from scaled down train carriages with their minimalist seating patterns and assorted counter only dine in restaurants to miniaturized electronic gadgets – the Japanese used netbooks years before the term had been invented in the West – and ingenious storage systems designed for crowded apartments to the scale of the compact apartments themselves.
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