ant house makinohara
Love all that plywood.
Me too. And the high windows let light in but block direct views in and out.
masterful carpentry
I am so impressed with the Japanese neo-modernist residential architecture movement. Aside from their relaxed regulations on gaps in stairs and hand rails (missing usa building code required infill panels) this could/ should be happening here in a big way. . I look at the post modernist era crap
the American consumer requires since the 70's and wonder if it will ever really take here. Europe, south America and elsewhere all seem way ahead
on getting away from 20th century McMansions and mc-condo crap. It's clearly the shape of the future.
Yes, I also like what I see of the Japanese architecture you post. I think this house is beautiful but I have a problem with this use of plywood. It is so difficult to join properly that it has got to be an expensive way to go, I don't see any way around it - the additional time for installation or the cost of a master craftsman who can do it quickly is going to jack the budget up. For that reason I think I prefer sheet-rock or traditional wood siding and flooring. I guess if you can afford plywood, wtf, knock yourself out, but that runs contrary to a big part what modernism is about.
Huh. I didn't know that about plywood. Interesting.
One of the great benefits of boards for flooring and siding is that they puzzle around things easily, if you make a bad cut you have only messed up a small amount of wood and usually that board can be salvaged and used somewhere else. The tongue and groove allows them to interlock. A 4X8' sheet of plywood does not interlock with other sheets, is pretty heavy and cumbersome and can easily damage finished areas as you wrestle it around corners etc. The most difficult part is measuring, cutting, mitering and compound mitering all the jogs around doorways, alcove walls, stairways etc. And if a wall isn't perfectly plumb then making the join at the corner requires scribing, cutting along that line with a skill saw and guide, or ripping diagonal cuts on a table saw. Total pain in the ass. I believe only the most skilled carpenters can make it look good.
I prefer sheetrock for walls too. I agree with you about plywood in general. It's a substrate material. Pre-finish. Faze one. But I like to see it used for f
unctual reasons and not style reasons. As 4x8 it's interchangeable w sfeetrock. It's a cabnet making material. My grassroots paradigm for base cost
reno includes linoleum to the floor finish in wet rooms kitchen and bath. And white appliances all around.
this house is a bit kooky with the playhouse within a house thing going on. they found the need to white wash or pickle the playhouse portion. and i agree that led to some difficult bevel work in places. on a whole though im not seeing to much difficult joinery. what do you mean traditional wood siding? i found a short piece on plywood and modernism.
by traditional wood siding I guess I mean T/G or even just boards.
Thanks. You've obviously spent some time in the trenches doing this type of stuff. I have some follow up points. Board lumber in most parts of the country is more expensive per sq foot than sheets of plywood. plywood comes in many grades. With a wide range of costs. It is the material of choice for
certain types of custom built cabinets. It takes veneres and laminents well and accepts iron on edge trim to make it look like a slab when that's
desired. It doesn't take a miter well since it's structure breaks up when the material is made thin and vulnerable to wear. The Japanese and others
that make these all plywood interiors seam to be running with a visual concept rather than using the best materials for the job. In some cases they expand
on cabnet making techniques to larger more expansive built-in environments that take over the entire house including stairs. This facilitates the
minimal esthetic by making concealed hiding places for the goods needed for every day life with out having to look at that stuff. But it leads to a
monolithic visual effect. I prefer a balance of materials and really like having plain white walls of sheetrock. Plywood also seems I'll advised for
flooring for reasons of wear. That's an area for hardwood or my personal economic favorite linoleum.
Sheetrock is also a fire block and often required by building code. I think also has better sound absorbency.
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- bill 9-02-2013 11:59 pm
Love all that plywood.
- jim 9-03-2013 1:10 am [add a comment]
Me too. And the high windows let light in but block direct views in and out.
- bill 9-03-2013 1:47 am [add a comment]
masterful carpentry
- steve 9-03-2013 10:58 am [add a comment]
I am so impressed with the Japanese neo-modernist residential architecture movement. Aside from their relaxed regulations on gaps in stairs and hand rails (missing usa building code required infill panels) this could/ should be happening here in a big way. . I look at the post modernist era crap the American consumer requires since the 70's and wonder if it will ever really take here. Europe, south America and elsewhere all seem way ahead on getting away from 20th century McMansions and mc-condo crap. It's clearly the shape of the future.
- bill 9-03-2013 1:35 pm [add a comment]
Yes, I also like what I see of the Japanese architecture you post. I think this house is beautiful but I have a problem with this use of plywood. It is so difficult to join properly that it has got to be an expensive way to go, I don't see any way around it - the additional time for installation or the cost of a master craftsman who can do it quickly is going to jack the budget up. For that reason I think I prefer sheet-rock or traditional wood siding and flooring. I guess if you can afford plywood, wtf, knock yourself out, but that runs contrary to a big part what modernism is about.
- steve 9-08-2013 11:27 pm [add a comment]
Huh. I didn't know that about plywood. Interesting.
- jim 9-09-2013 12:13 pm [add a comment]
One of the great benefits of boards for flooring and siding is that they puzzle around things easily, if you make a bad cut you have only messed up a small amount of wood and usually that board can be salvaged and used somewhere else. The tongue and groove allows them to interlock. A 4X8' sheet of plywood does not interlock with other sheets, is pretty heavy and cumbersome and can easily damage finished areas as you wrestle it around corners etc. The most difficult part is measuring, cutting, mitering and compound mitering all the jogs around doorways, alcove walls, stairways etc. And if a wall isn't perfectly plumb then making the join at the corner requires scribing, cutting along that line with a skill saw and guide, or ripping diagonal cuts on a table saw. Total pain in the ass. I believe only the most skilled carpenters can make it look good.
- steve 9-10-2013 4:50 am [add a comment]
I prefer sheetrock for walls too. I agree with you about plywood in general. It's a substrate material. Pre-finish. Faze one. But I like to see it used for f unctual reasons and not style reasons. As 4x8 it's interchangeable w sfeetrock. It's a cabnet making material. My grassroots paradigm for base cost reno includes linoleum to the floor finish in wet rooms kitchen and bath. And white appliances all around.
- bill 9-09-2013 1:38 am [add a comment]
this house is a bit kooky with the playhouse within a house thing going on. they found the need to white wash or pickle the playhouse portion. and i agree that led to some difficult bevel work in places. on a whole though im not seeing to much difficult joinery. what do you mean traditional wood siding? i found a short piece on plywood and modernism.
- bill 9-09-2013 3:36 pm [add a comment]
plywood is excellent for furniture.
- steve 9-10-2013 5:02 am [add a comment]
by traditional wood siding I guess I mean T/G or even just boards.
- steve 9-10-2013 4:57 am [add a comment]
Thanks. You've obviously spent some time in the trenches doing this type of stuff. I have some follow up points. Board lumber in most parts of the country is more expensive per sq foot than sheets of plywood. plywood comes in many grades. With a wide range of costs. It is the material of choice for certain types of custom built cabinets. It takes veneres and laminents well and accepts iron on edge trim to make it look like a slab when that's desired. It doesn't take a miter well since it's structure breaks up when the material is made thin and vulnerable to wear. The Japanese and others that make these all plywood interiors seam to be running with a visual concept rather than using the best materials for the job. In some cases they expand on cabnet making techniques to larger more expansive built-in environments that take over the entire house including stairs. This facilitates the minimal esthetic by making concealed hiding places for the goods needed for every day life with out having to look at that stuff. But it leads to a monolithic visual effect. I prefer a balance of materials and really like having plain white walls of sheetrock. Plywood also seems I'll advised for flooring for reasons of wear. That's an area for hardwood or my personal economic favorite linoleum.
- bill 9-10-2013 2:45 pm [add a comment]
Sheetrock is also a fire block and often required by building code. I think also has better sound absorbency.
- bill 9-10-2013 3:55 pm [add a comment]