Thinking Inside the Box: Tracing Japan's Traditional Design in Modern Japanese Architecture

Abstract

With the world advancing at such a fast pace, often culture and identity are lost to the global trend. Through each pass of global iterations, a little more of the base culture is lost, resulting in a design that is more and more part of the global identity. This is occurring more often across the globe where countries are losing their own rich cultural identity and submitting to the global trend. Specifically looking at Japan and the modernist trend that swept the nation, I analyzed the elements of Japanese designs stood the test of time and global trends. By studying Japan during its modernist era, I could identify these elements due to the minimalist and pure nature of the trend. What this resulted in were the bases of Japanese design that always maintains and thrives upon, creating their own architectural identity that will always be a part of whatever trend may affect the nation. Through this research methodology, I was able to grasp what the roots of Japanese design are and what ultimately goes into each iteration of design that goes through the nation. In turn, a similar methodology can be used when identifying other nations’ cultural base and seeing how another nation’s culture is preserved through each iteration of global design.