Hasta La Ideas

nest / Kanda SU (1999-2004)

They say your home is your “third skin,” after your clothes and your actual skin. Our second and third “skins,” just like our actual skin, have a significant effect on our lives. If your clothes are wet, or aren’t warm enough, you might catch a cold. If your house is designed and built without natural, eco-friendly materials… well, you may not catch a cold, but the space you live in, its materials, its design, surely has an affect on your well being.

Tono Mirai is an architect who believes this, and has focused on making houses out of, for lack of a better word, “earth” for nearly 15 years. His series of “earth houses” began while experimenting with traditional Japanese plastering techniques—which have a deep, 1,000-year history in Japan—used to make “tsuchikabe” (literally “mud walls”) in an effort to create a more natural, healthy home for his wife. Through this experimentation, he realized how soil, wood, and other natural ingredients could be used to fulfill the three things he wanted to achieve with his architecture: sustainability, health and beauty.

Future House (2010)

Future House (2010)

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