Author: christian

Edited by Christian Dehli and Andrea Grolimund

Kazuo Shinohara’s (1925–2006) first book Residential Architecture is regarded as one of the most important Japanese texts on architecture of the second half of the 20th century. First published in Japan in 1964 as Jūtaku kenchiku, the book was compulsory reading for several generations of Japanese architecture students and has influenced many of the most renowned contemporary Japanese architects. Translated by the architectural historian David B. Stewart and the architects Shin-ichi Okuyama and Kenichi Nakamura, Shinohara’s reflections on residential architecture become available in English for the first time, making the multifaceted insights into the conceptual fundamentals of his outstanding work accessible to a global audience. In the first of three chapters, Kazuo Shinohara writes about traditional Japanese architecture, the starting point of his theory and practice. This is followed by a description of his design philosophy, which he further explains and illustrates in the final chapter, based on the first seven houses he built. Designed by Elektrosmog.

January 2026, English (in print)
Softcover, 284 pages, 13 × 20 cm
ISBN 978-3-03860-458-7
Published by Park Books

The Best German Book Design 2026

METALOCUS
Nicht nur schön

 

Edited by Christian Dehli and Andrea Grolimund

This is the story of Umbrella House conceived by the mathematically trained Japanese architect Kazuo Shinohara (1925–2006), from its initial construction in Tokyo, Japan in 1961 to its preservation little over half a century later at Vitra in Weil am Rhein, Germany. Thanks to a stroke of good fortune, the house was saved from demolition but could not remain in Tokyo. So, this little masterpiece was carefully dismantled, its timbers painstakingly conserved, packed, shipped, and then reassembled, before reconstruction on the Vitra Campus. Expanding on photographs by Osamu Murai and Damian Poffet, contributors include Ryue Nishizawa, Kazuo Shinohara, Christian Dehli, and Andrea Grolimund, as well as David B. Stewart together with Shin-ichi Okuyama. The house’s journey from Japan to Germany is also presented in a short photo series. Designed by Elektrosmog.

November 2022, English (in print)
Hardcover, 120 pages, 18 × 25 cm
ISBN 978-3-945852-55-2
Published by Vitra Design Museum

The Best German Book Design 2023, longlisted in the category “Art Books, Photo Books, and Exhibition Catalogs”

 

The Umbrella House (1961), is one of the smallest of the iconic early timber-framed houses designed by the Japanese architect Kazuo Shinohara (1925–2006). A little more than 60 years after its construction, the house was secured from demolition and relocated from Tokyo, Japan to the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany. As architectural consultants and co-architects, we supervised the reconstruction of the house from the exact positioning on the site and the building application to the final documentation and potential scenarios for its future use. In close coordination with the Okuyama Lab of Tokyo Tech, materials, details and colors for the reconstruction of various surfaces, furniture and the surrounding landscape were determined and discussed on-site with the various craftsmen. We oversaw the execution works and the fine-tuning of the colors as part of the local construction management.

Location: Vitra Campus, Weil am Rhein, Germany
Client: Vitra
Year: 2020–2022
Status: Completed
Program: Residential / Cultural
Team: Christian Dehli, Andrea Grolimund
Collaborators: Christian Germadnik, Okuyama Laboratory

ARCHI HATCH
Dezeen
Heritage Houses Trust
NZZ 4.8.2022
Wallpaper*
werk, bauen + wohnen 12/2022

Photos © Damian Poffet, DEHLI GROLIMUND
Plans © Okuyama Laboratory, Tokyo Institute of Technology

The weekend house for the Japanese poet Shuntarō Tanikawa was built in 1974. It is regarded as one of the masterpieces within the oeuvre of Kazuo Shinohara and one of the most radical schemes of his career. For the present owners, we analyzed the condition of the house and proposed various concepts for making Tanikawa House accessible to the public in future.

Location: Naganohara, Gunma Prefecture, Japan
Client: The Chain Museum
Year: 2019
Status: Study
Program: Mixed Use
Team: Christian Dehli, Andrea Grolimund
Collaborators: Hiroyuki Kimura

Photos © DEHLI GROLIMUND

Edited by Christian Dehli, Andrea Grolimund, and David B. Stewart

A selection of previously unknown color travel slides taken by the architect Kazuo Shinohara (1925–2006). Street scenes, impressions of townscape, and certain more monumental buildings are caught on 35 mm film as a personal record of details, unusual perspectives, and sometimes mere oddities. They constitute the diary of a seasoned Japanese architect — visiting Europe, Africa, and the Americas for the first time in visits ranging from 1972 to 1985. Extended edition with more photos and an essay by Simona Ferrari. Designed by Elektrosmog.

Rollo N°67 (extended edition, out of print)
May 2022, English
Softcover, 160 pages, 12.8 × 18 cm
ISBN 978-3-906213-38-5
Published by Rollo Press

Rollo N°59 (out of print)
May 2019, English
Softcover, 128 pages, 12.8 × 18 cm
ISBN 978-3-906213-28-6
Published by Rollo Press

JUANZONG Archive AWARDS, finalist in the category “Emerging Creator” 2022

 

Edited by Christian Dehli and Andrea Grolimund

Kazuo Shinohara: 3 Houses analyzes three major works: House in White (1966), House in Uehara (1976) and House in Yokohama (1984) by the late Kazuo Shinohara (1925–2006), one of the most important and influential Japanese architects of the twentieth century. The reader will discover a comprehensive selection of plans redrawn to commensurate scale from original working drawings, unpublished holograph sketches, and archival photographs. Contributions from Shinohara’s teaching colleagues Profs. David B. Stewart and Shin-ichi Okuyama situate the three houses within Shinohara’s oeuvre and afford new insight into the architect’s distinctive working methods. A foreword by the well-known architect Ryue Nishizawa confirms Shinohara’s continuing influence in the present. Designed by Elektrosmog.

October 2025, English / Japanese (new edition, in print)
Softcover, 212 pages, 30 × 37.5 cm
ISBN 978-3-03860-457-0
Published by Park Books

May 2019, English / Japanese (out of print)
Softcover, 212 pages, 30 × 37.5 cm
ISBN 978-3-03761-167-8
Published by Quart Verlag

Most Beautiful Swiss Books 2019

Christian Dehli was an advisor for the December 2015 issue of werk, bauen + wohnen dedicated to Kazuo Shinohara. It includes an article about the years of Dehli’s research on Kazuo Shinohara’s mysterious “Prism House” (1974), climaxing in his and Grolimund’s quest for this summer house situated among the mountains of Lake Yamanaka.

December 2015, German / English (in print)
Softcover, 92 pages, 23.5 × 29.7 cm
ISSN 0257-9332
Published by werk, bauen + wohnen