japanese modern interior design construction
before we get into this next tour, i wantto give a big thank-you to audible for sponsoring this video. living tiny and constantly traveling makesit pretty hard for me to indulge in my love of books and reading but audible allows meto download and travel with a huge range of audio books and lots of other audio mediawhich is perfect for those long hours driving or on public transport. at the moment i'm listening to 'minimalism- live a meaningful life' by the minimalists. minimalism is something which helps me tokeep my life simple and focused on the things which are truly important to me.
this book offers some really great tips andadvice and i strongly recommend you check it out. if you sign up to audible using my uniquelink in this video, you're able to download this book or any other title of you like forfree as part of their 30 day trial. even if you decide not to continue with yourmembership the audio book is yours to keep for life. head over to audible.com/livingbig to takea look, or follow the link in the description of this video. after visiting his incredible mountain cottage,when i found out that daigo had also been
renovating a small house here in the villagei had to check it out. so, let's go take a look! b: good morning daigo! d: good morning! b: nice to see you again, and this here isthe new project isn't it? d: yes b: can you tell me a little bit aboutthe history of this place? d:about 80 years ago, it's an old udo house,it was for raising raw silk worms. so, people didn't live here, it's for worms. so 100 or 200 worms lived here, but now i'verenovated this one.
vo: this home has been beautifully renovated,keeping as many of the original elements as possible. in traditional japanese style, the home iswooden framed with earthen walls and even keeps it's original charred cedar cladding. b: well, i'm really excited to take a lookinside, can we take a peak? d:yeah. b: alright! this is beautiful! d:thank-you.
b: i absolutely love the materials this homeis made from. these hefty wooden beams, the natural materialsand textures, this is wonderful! and you can see a lot of japanese influencein it's design but it's not necessarily traditional japanese style, is it? you've definitely given this your own flavour. d: i wondered if i should change from old tonew. the balance is very very difficult. but most of them are original. wall is original, floor is original and ofcourse structure is original but the items
are new, system is new. so i think it's very nice, good balance atthis house. b: this kitchen, is very impressive, i reallylove this bit of wood! d: i bought the whole wood from my friend. it's very cheap, about 5000 yen. it's size is 80cm (2.5ft) and length is 4m(13ft) and i cut so this wood and this wood and this wood is all the same, same wood. b: wow! d: very cheap.
b: super cheap, so 5000 yen, we're maybe talkingabout 50 usd, something like that? d:yes b: and again, like in the cottage you'vejust used very simple butane burners for your cooking. d: it's contemporary but very useful and veryslim and stylish. this is from music room in old elementaryschool, yeah, i used this. this chair is from library of elementary school. b: that is wonderful, i just love it whenpeople find these little treasures and give them a new life in their home. d: it was very dirty so i rubbed and put oil,it takes time but it changed, the material
starts new life. b: i think in cases like this all that extrawork is really worth it, isn't it? d: yeah. b: i really like as well, how this whole downstairsarea just looks out onto that lovely little garden that you've created there. d: thank-you. b: and the style, again, it's so simple, verylow maintenance, but doesn't it look wonderful? i used stones and the colour is white andgrey because the house is very dark, the window of south is very small, so it is difficultto get sunshine so i used bright coloured
stones so it reflects and the room becomesvery bright. b: and what are these rooms over here? d: this door is bathroom and toilet. i picked up at the river this wood. b: really nice. d: yeah this room is bathroom and washroom. b: this is lovely, look at that! a very big shower, bath area and again, allof that wood and the grain in the wood just jumps out at you, aye?
d: yeah b: and what's this one next door? d: this is toilet. b: ah, the toilet. and i really like the little space savingfeatures that i often see build into toilets in japan like this one, obviously wheneveryou flush it the water comes out so you can wash your hands in the top. really, really great idea. d: yeah, very compact. b: and shall we have a look upstairs?
d: yes! b: again this place is just like a celebrationof wood and wonderful materials. and the design is so simple but everythingseems to be perfectly in it's place doesn't it? d: thank-you! here is sleeping place. the size is perfect for a family and couples. b: it's wonderful as well how you have thefire, the chimney goes right the way up so it still allows all of the heat to come upand radiate throughout this upstairs area
too. d: yes. when we're sleeping it's very warm. b: so in total, how long has this projecttaken you to get to this stage? d: ah, it look one and a half years. the house was quite different before i renovatedit. everything was very, very dirty. the floor, i took away and wash by water andpaint, and paint, yeah it took a very long time.
if i buy new materials, new woods, i couldn'tleave atmosphere like this. i wanted to renovate but i don't change theatmosphere because the space has history and culture and 80 years of atmosphere. b: and how much did this project cost? d: it cost 3 million yen because i used old woods,i didn't buy material of wood. b: 3 million yen then is the total cost? b: that is crazy! that is really hard to believe! vo: in contrast to the high cost of housingin big japanese cities such as tokyo, in rural
japan you're able to find old homes such asthis one for unbelievably low prices. they take a bit of work to restore but theend result is undeniably worth the effort. b: daigo, this home is really exciting forme to visit. you have done such a wonderful job of bringingtogether this wonderful, traditional style home but giving it so much modern flare andcharacter. congratulations on an incredible project! d: thank-you b: thank-you! daigo has taken a wonderful, old, historicbuilding and given it a brand new lease of life with this wonderful almost modern flare.
his creative touch has certainly given thishome at least another 80 years of life.