Harnessing Kajiraku to design efficient homes

Home layouts play a vital role in creating more efficient and comfortable spaces. Here’s how the Japanese concept of Kajiraku can help you realise your dream home.

Space constraint has become a pain point in urban environments across geographies. To address this, it’s clear that we need a different approach towards designing our homes. This requires a more intelligent and thoughtful take on how our living spaces can shape our ideal lifestyles.

Previously, we’ve looked at how green technologies are revolutionising the way modern buildings are structured, helping us to achieve a healthy and comfortable life. Now, a new Japanese concept may transform the way we organise our interior spaces, with a safe and happy home in mind.

A new approach for comfortable and functional living

Kajiraku is a Japanese concept describing the efficiency of a house’s layout. It focuses on providing solutions through a design that is more intelligent and space-efficient, while simultaneously enhancing the health, safety and communication among inhabitants.

Applying the principles of Kajiraku, for instance, might result in a family home where an open kitchen is placed at the centre of the living and dining rooms. All three areas would be adjoined to ensure smooth-flowing activity. Such a layout minimises the time spent completing household chores while strengthening bonds within the family.

Kajiraku applies just as meaningfully for both working couples and singles. A larger master bedroom with separately located storage cabinets and desks allow two individuals to share the area while having their own distinct space. A dressing table positioned between the bathroom and wardrobe also allows women to tend to their beauty routines with ease.

Space efficient, minimalist and tasteful interiors get a boost with Kajiraku

Furniture and other fixtures are selected and placed to optimise efficiency and enable effective multitasking. In the kitchen, for instance, the stove, sink and refrigerator are ideally located close to each other to improve the flow of any food preparation. A back door from the kitchen leads to the yard, so laundry can be hung up immediately after dinner has been placed in the oven, or the trash can be taken out quickly while waiting for the kettle to boil. In other areas, wall-mounted storage in the bedroom and the entrance gallery allows for personal belongings to be tucked away neatly, enabling a compact space that retains a minimalist and clean appearance.

The list goes on and on, but the possibilities are endless. With Kajiraku as a guiding theme, your home is guaranteed to feel like it makes a lot more sense.

Embracing Kajiraku in urban homes

In Malaysia, purchasing a house usually involves two steps: First, the purchase of a house from the developer, which comes minimally furnished, followed by a separate contract with a designer to customise the interior furnishings and layout to the homeowner’s liking. Such a process can be complicated and drawn-out.

Well aware of this challenge, PanaHome MKH Malaysia recently launched a one-stop solution for homebuyers with Maple @ Hillpark Shah Alam North, a housing complex comprising 490 units of two-storey terrace houses totalling 161,510sqm. Construction is slated to be completed by May 2018.

Marking their first foray into Malaysia’s housing business, PanaHome will provide both a construction service and its own Living Design Package, which consists of built-in interior furnishings and layout planning that incorporates the concept of Kajiraku. Other unique Panasonic technologies will also be employed within the Living Design Package – buyers can look forward to the PURETECH ventilation system, which keeps indoor air fresh and free from up to 95 per cent of harmful air pollutants, as well as an energy-efficient air conditioner and a home security system.

Interested in finding out more about Maple @ Hillpark Shah Alam North? We would be delighted to have you join us in our Kuala Lumpur showroom so you can view our Living Design Package and more solutions.

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