Wabi-Sabi

The Japanese view of life embraced a simple aesthetic that grew stronger as inessentials were eliminatedand trimmed away. -architect Tadao Ando Pared down to its barest essence, wabi-sabi is the Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature, of accepting the natural cycle of growth, decay, and death. It's simple, slow, and uncluttered-and it reveres authenticity above all. Wabi-sabi is flea markets, not warehouse stores; aged wood, not Pergo; rice paper, not glass. Wabi-sabi is underplayed and modest, the kind of quiet, undeclared beauty that waits patiently to be discovered. Daisetz T. In Japan, there is a marked difference between a Thoreau-like wabibito (wabi person), who is free in his heart, and a makoto no hinjin, a more Dickensian character whose poor circumstances make him desperate and pitiful. The words wabi and sabi were not always linked, although they've been together for such a long time that many people (including D. Cleanliness implies respect.

Wiki definition A Japanese tea house which reflects the wabi-sabi aesthetic in Kenroku-en (兼六園) Garden Wabi-sabi (侘寂?) represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete".[1] It is a concept derived from the Buddhist teaching of the three marks of existence (三法印, sanbōin?), specifically impermanence (無常, mujō?), the other two being suffering (苦, ku?) Description[edit] "Wabi-sabi is the most conspicuous and characteristic feature of traditional Japanese beauty and it occupies roughly the same position in the Japanese pantheon of aesthetic values as do the Greek ideals of beauty and perfection in the West".[1] "If an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi The words wabi and sabi do not translate easily. Western use[edit]

LifeEdited Given both the small footprint of the existing apartment and the quite high number of desired functions that should be fitted inside of it, we thought the most logical solution would be to draw a line between the convertible and non-convertible areas. So for the starting point of the concept, we decided that the best configuration of the apartment would have the wet and non-convertible areas (the kitchen and the bathroom) positioned next to the eastern wall facing the building's private courtyard, using the rest as the convertible area ,a confortable sized open space, receiving natural light from all four windows and meeting all the owners needs ,by transforming itself. The main area of the apartment is a convertible room,by using smart space saving furniture systems, combined with the mobility of the modular piece on the entrance wall. Also there is a thinbike slot behind the folding dining table that can be accesed from the entrance area.