In Xiaoxi's previous articles, he has mentioned Japanese storage, layout and neat and clean life concepts many times. So many people wonder, Japan is so small and the houses they live in are not big, why does the interior look so comfortable and tidy, and it is not as crowded and cramped as a small apartment?
This is actually related to the refined design of Japanese-style residential buildings. Whether it is a Japanese-style building or an apartment, its internal functional layout and migration routes are very reasonable. The entire indoor space, the activity area is open and flowing, and the lounge area is quiet and private. Many of the detailed designs are more convenient for storage and cleaning.
. These designs were actually very popular and used in Japan decades ago, and are not outdated until today. This article will be a little happy to talk to you about the refined design of Japanese-style residential buildings, which still has certain reference significance for our decoration today.
01 Visitor Movement
Xiaoxi once heard about Visitor Movement for the first time in the study and storage course. At that time, I thought it was a layout that only a large mansion would have. Later, as I gradually learned, I found that many houses in Japan had visitor traffic.
The reason why visitors are designed is mainly to protect the privacy of the real rest area, so that when guests visit, the owner will not be busy to protect indoor privacy.
Japanese flat house interior layout
The layout of the visitor's driving line is very clever. When the owner goes home, the driving line of the Japanese flat floor is generally, the sunken entrance hall (changing shoes) → the soil room (placing bags, coats, sports tools) → the living room → the kitchen/face washing dressing room.
and the visitor line: sunken entrance → living room → independent toilet area . That is to say, even if relatives and friends visit, at most, they will stop in the living room space and everyone will have a chat. If you need to go to the bathroom, there is also an independent toilet room that can be used near the entrance, without having to go through the room and "browse" the owner's life.
, and some sudden visitors, such as takeaway, express delivery, and neighbors, can only be processed in the sunken entrance.
02 dynamic and still separation
In addition to shortening the visitor dynamics and protecting the owner's life to the greatest extent from being spying on and disturbed, Japanese designers also pay great attention to dynamic and still separation in interior layout.
If we look carefully at the flat house floor plan in the picture above, we can also find that the owner's rest area and the activity area are clearly separated.
If the house is built by a household, the downstairs will generally be used as the activity area for the family, and the upstairs will be the seating area.
The advantage of separation of movement and stillness is that even if the rest time of each individual is different between the family, the separation of the activity washing area and the bedroom will not have a serious impact on the family who have already rested.
If there are infants and children and elderly people at home, they need to sleep during the day, and after the movement and stillness are separated, their daily life will not disturb them.
At the same time, family members will also develop good sleep reminders, such as entering the rest area after washing up, and the area changes, and they will enter sleep faster.
03 guest toilet room
Japanese-style bathrooms are generally separated, and the most important thing is the toilet area where the toilet is used. When I didn’t know about it in the past, I saw a home blogger saying that this is because in Japanese concept, “it is dirty when going to the toilet, and the bath is clean”, so the toilet and the bath must be separated.
But we have seen scenes of people sitting in the toilet area eating bento and sushi in many Japanese films and TV series. This really surprised me!
Later, after detailed understanding, I realized that the independent toilet area of Japanese-style residences is simply to facilitate the use of customers and thus protect the privacy of the homeowner's living space.
They are usually designed near the entrance hall, just like the visitor traffic mentioned in the first Xiaoxi mentioned in this article, it includes an independent toilet room. Therefore, an independent toilet has another meaning, namely, a guest bathroom.
So, we see that in many independent toilet areas, a mini washbasin will be designed to facilitate customers or family members to wash their hands in time after going to the toilet.
It must be mentioned that there is not only one independent toilet area for Japanese-style residential buildings. Normally, the guest toilet area near the entrance hall is the guest toilet area, and the home toilet area near the lounge area is the home toilet area.
04 Separated soil storage
Japanese residential design, the most important thing that cannot be ignored is the design of sunken entrance and Japanese soil, which is also an important reason why countless Japanese small apartments can ensure tidyness.
Many people do not understand the relationship and significance of the existence of the soil and the sunken entrance. To briefly explain, in fact, Japanese-style earth-room is an open storage room, evolved from the original "land farming tool storage room" in Japan, and its name is still retained.
Japanese earth room and sunken entrance hall actually form a buffer zone for going home, that is, before entering the real indoor, changing shoes, placing items, children's bicycles, and all items going out are all solved here at one time.
This is also the concept of separation between inside and outside that Xijia has mentioned to everyone.
The inside and outside here are the inside and outside formed by the design of the sunken entrance hall. In addition to the steps, the sinking area + soil part is laid, ceramic tiles are laid for easy cleaning, and are also used to bear external dust and various debris, such as the family's regular shoes, strollers, umbrellas, coats, children's schoolbags, bicycles, etc.
st steps, usually laying wooden floors is the indoor space. Some people will install a small door as a partition before entering the real indoor through the entrance hall. This completely separates the connection between external items and the indoor, and reduces the storage problems of indoor dust and debris.
stairs can also be used as shoe changing stools. This design layout of the interior and exterior of the entrance hall is an important part of the refined design of Japanese residential buildings, and largely determines the tidyness of the home.
05 Open dining and kitchen integrated
The interior layout of the Japanese-style house is very flexible, the moving lines are smooth, and the living room, dining room, kitchen and bathroom are all coherent. This integrated design of dining and kitchen integrated, they are also called the LDK layout.
LDK layout is not only very friendly for small apartments, but also makes the space look open and comfortable. It is completely unhindered and is more convenient for daily housework and life.
Especially for housewives, when chores, you can put the children in the living room with confidence and see them with your eyes up. Even when cooking, you don’t have to worry about your children.
06 Face wash-changing-bathing coherent
In addition to the independent toilet area, the other four functional areas of the Japanese bathroom also include a washing area, a locker room, and a bathroom. These three seem independent, and have special doors as partitions, but they are actually coherent.
In the picture, the red arrow is the bathing line
This refined design independent of each activity line makes the Japanese bathroom very comfortable and convenient. The reason why
says this is that it truly separates dry and wet, reducing the moisture in the dry area, and reducing the growth of bacteria and mold; the second is to perfect the movement line, brush teeth, remove makeup in the washing area, cleanse the face, go to the dressing area, throw the dirty clothes into the washing machine to clean it → finally go to the bathroom, take a shower, and finish it in one go.
, even the other way around, is still practical. After taking a bath, put on clean pajamas in the dressing area, and then sit quietly in the cleansing area for skin care (the Japanese cleansing area is a combination of washing + makeup/skin care table). There is a sliding door in the changing area of
, which can be pulled up at any time to form an independent space. The interior is a combination of a washing machine and dirty laundry basket , and clean pajamas can also be stored here. The four-separated bathroom design is super convenient for family members to use at the same time without disturbing each other, improving the efficiency of space use and preventing water stains and moisture from "polluting" other spaces.
07 empty activity room
No matter how small it is, it still needs a place to stay quietly. This place doesn't need to be very big, but it's best not to put anything in it. This is the activity room of a Japanese-style residence, also known as and .
In fact, Japan and the room originated from our period in the Tang Dynasty. After it was introduced to Japan, it formed a multi-purpose multi-functional activity room. The existence of
and the room have a more room-healing and relaxing effect, or to entertain guests.
Personally I think this is really good for modern people with such a tight space at the moment. A separate blank room can be an exclusive place for meditation, yoga, and reading, or a parent-child game and activity room, giving you more possibilities for staying at home.
08 kitchen island lifted 20cm
Japanese kitchen layout is mostly double-shaped, the island faces the living and dining room, and the stove range hood is installed inside to cover it with the wall, and the sink area and vegetable preparation area are kept open. However, the island will still be raised about 20cm high, so that when looking at the kitchen from the perspective of the dining room, daily necessities will be blocked, making the kitchen look cleaner.
Solid wood partitions are installed above the raised wall to form a new countertop where tissues and green plants can be placed, and it also becomes the vegetable delivery platform for home. The design of
is worth learning from the open kitchen. If you want better storage, you can also make an niche design inside the raised part to facilitate kitchen storage.
09 closet wardrobe
In Japanese-style residences, we can hardly see finished wardrobes, nor do we have customized cabinets, and some of them are all this closet-style wardrobe design.
is a bit similar to the embedded wardrobe we often call. The closet wardrobe has a very simple internal layout. It is often a partition on the top to store seasonal bedding, all of which are hanging areas in the middle, and a plastic storage box is placed at the bottom to sort and store.
If the closet is sufficient, the internal space will be divided into two, 2/3 will be used as a wardrobe and 1/3 will be used as a storage cabinet. The cabinet doors are basically folding cabinet doors, which are easy to open and easy to get daily clothes.
This kind of closet was not designed by the owner himself to smash the wall, but was considered when building a house. It is called "embargo" in Japanese-style residences.
10 edge side
Unlike apartments or flat houses, some Japanese-style homes still retain the edge side design today.
This is similar to the eaves corridor we remember. It connects the interior and the courtyard. It seems to be a simple transition, but it can make the house more integrated with nature.
edge facing the courtyard, and can also be used as a home travel line for family members. Of course, more often, edge side is used as a casual use. For example, in summer, you can sit here with your family and eat watermelons, look at maple leaves in autumn, and in winter, you can feel the snowflakes all over the sky. In any case, it is a place where the whole family loves to be.
The refined design of Japanese-style residential buildings not only includes its reasonable driving lines, clear partitioning, and independent functions, but also has flexible spatial layout and strict requirements for practicality. Even today, when we are decorating, the entrance design, bathroom partition, integrated living room and dining, and wardrobe storage are all very good reference points.
