The House is a project that aims to serve as an enquiry into multiple contemporary social issues through examining the various histories of Japanese style houses. The history of architecture and art of a country is always intimately connected to the formation of a national identity.
Occasionally, the practice of reinforcing the historical contexts of one’s culture results in arbitrary connections, commonly done in the name of building the concept of a national history.
Although this type of cultural nationalism saw its peak in the first half of the 20th century, it is still currently visible in a number of places.
This project assembles a linear timeline and aims to reject the process through which those historical contexts were formed. The fact that this seemingly innocuous Japanese house exists in the same form across continents, parallel to numerous political factors and upheaval will be made clear.
The Japanese house as a concept shakes the boundaries between absence and existence, assault and injury, visible in the “enemy houses”, which are still standing now, nicknamed for the Japanese who lived in Korea, as well as the “Japanese village” built in the US to test incendiary bombs.
Finally, we are left asking the question: Can the Japanese house be an idea that serves as a platform for both learning and dialogue?