LUIS MANOVEL

JAPAN DESU reflects on the intersection between culture and design in Japan today. In a context of international fluidity, design generates a paradoxical dialogue between the past and the present, local traditions and new subcultures. Disciplines that change in scale but focus on their relationship with the human body, harmony and a constant search for improvement. Japan, as a society, incubates significant trends that could become part of everyday life in Spain in the near future and what is shown here can help us understand how design has the power to shape these new experiences.

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THE SPACE OF THE INDIVIDUAL

Japan is a country in constant evolution. In architecture we see how stylised structures rise up within the fabric of the Japanese metropolis. These buildings are distinguished by their great slenderness and small footprint. They are called Penshirubiru, which can be translated as pencil buildings. They are buildings dedicated to collective housing. They rise in height on minimal plots of land forming slender pieces, like a pencil in an upright position, hence their name. This new housing is a response to the new social model that has generated a majority of single-person households and to the new routines that tend to concentrate citizens around the densest areas of Japanese cities.