Matching Traditional with Modern

1. Knock down the old house and build a modern Japanese off the shelf house. Sure you have alot choices but its a rectanguar box that is x and y dimensions with set spaces. This works great here as they kitchen etc go into a set space and the housing companies here are all setup for that.

"Welcome to our showroom, can you please give me the dimensions of your kitchen?" That wonderful, would you like to look at our set model kitchens for that space or design you own that will fit into the dimensions you have just given? Great now what colours would you like!

Bathrooms are even more restrictive. Architectes here know the exact dimensions of a system bathroom and make the space for it.

2. Take an old Japanese house an build over it and turn it into a modern house, so none of the old charactor of the house is left.  We found out this weekend our neighbours had done just that.  From the outside it looks like a new house, but its just a shell, yet the old house as also been fully built in so its all modern walls.

3. Restore to original traditional japanese style.  Which tends to be your more show homes or tourist attractions..

There are also some variations on that.

3a.  Horrible modern builiding (concrete) that has been refitted to look traditional on the inside with tatami and other trappings that tourists want to think they are being 'traditional'

3b. The traditial old house that has been totally bastardised with modern shite with no care for the old, but just cramming in the modern stuff. and

3c. One of my actual favs (and I have stayed in such a place many times), the slightly modifed traditional house that still maintains its intregrity and is really wonderful, but has alot of the drawabacks of the old style.

So where did we go.  Well I have explained it before, what we want to do and have the option here is float the modern and old together.  An old house with tatami living and sleeping next to modern cooking space and bathrooms. 

Have we pulled it off.  Well we are still waiting to see, the kitchen is in now and the bathroom is on the way.  Depending on the building and cleaning cycle and standing in the old house when I see it I think we did pull it off.  The new lower modern annex looks great, it does say yes I'm modern, but I'm down here, lower that you the old house, and I'm discretely modern. 

The kitchen is there and the genkan (foyer) just speak easy of the modern and interace via the huge 20m long step upto the old house.  We can't really express how well the new step looks.  The carpenter really did get it so right.  I gues you really will have to wait until the final photos to say if it did work, but so far its looking really good.