Built using a wooden post-and-beam construction method, the house was carefully dismantled in the summer of 2020 and separated into its individual parts. The wooden structure made of Japanese cypress, Japanese pine and Oregon pine was securely packed along with the other components and shipped to Weil am Rhein. Reconstruction on the Vitra Campus commenced in September 2021 in close coordination with the Tokyo Institute of Technology and was completed in summer 2022.
Kazuo Shinohara on the Umbrella House:
"The strength of my conviction that ›A House is a Work of Art‹ was born of the struggle with this small house. I wished to express the force of space contained in the doma (earthen-floor room) of an old Japanese farmhouse, this time by means of the geometric structural design of a karakasa (oiled-paper Japanese umbrella)."
Text on the Umbrella House, Shinkenchiku , vol. 37, no. 10, Tokyo, October 1962 (first published in English in The Japan Architect, vol. 38, Tokyo, February 1963).
Umbrella House, Vitra Campus, June 2022. Image by Dejan Jovanovic / Vitra
The home with its square layout offered sufficient space for a small family. In designing the house, Shinohara drew on the traditional vernacular architecture of Japanese homes as well as temples, transferring various motifs to residential construction for the first time. For example, the pyramid-shaped roof form used in the Umbrella House had previously only been seen in temple complexes. When building the Umbrella House, Shinohara deliberately employed simple and inexpensive materials, such as the cement fibre boards on the façade. The Umbrella House made a novel and inspirational contribution to the architectural discourse of 1960s Japan.
The 55m² floor area accommodates a kitchen and dining table, a living room, a bathroom and a traditional tatami room with 15 half-size tatami mats, which provided living and sleeping quarters for the whole family. Slightly raised with a flat ceiling, the tatami room can be separated from the living room via five sliding doors (fusuma).
The prints by Japanese artist Setsu Asakura on the sliding doors were also executed to Shinohara’s specifications. The visible umbrella structure of the roof spans the interior volume at 4 metres in height, which makes the small floor area appear larger. A ladder provides access to the half-height area above the tatami room, which served as storage space. The furniture was designed by Kazuo Shinohara himself as well as by designer Katsuhiko Shiraishi. Today, the house is furnished with a mix of replicas and original pieces.
The Umbrella House will serve as a venue for small gatherings on the campus, offering visitors insights into modern Japanese architecture.
