Japanese houses 2

Last article I told you about the present situation regarding Japanese houses. This time, I would like to write about the origin of the home-building industry in Japan.

There are 5 or 6 big house production companies in Japan. Many of these companies started in the 1960's. As the 1960's are called the golden 60's,The Japanese economy dramatically grew in this decade and in 1964 we had the first Olympics in Asia

After WWⅡ many people wanted a new world different from before WWⅡ. At that time the American life style was their ideal lifestyle. During the 1950's, people desperately needed to recover form the damage of WWⅡ. There was no room to create the new lifestyle. But 1960's, Everyday life became more steady, many people wanted Modern Luxuries and a new house. I think this is the reason why many house production companies started in the 1960's.

House production companies originated in the 1960's. However, the origins of the home-building industry are older than house production companies. When WWⅡ was finished, there was a shortage of 4,200,000 houses in Japan. At that time, architect Kunio Maekawa designed a house production system named Premos. It was made by only one size of wooden panel. The panel (1m×2.6m×11.1cm) was used for floor, wall and roof. Premos was based on modern lifestyle like America. It was looked like occupation army's house and there were no Japanese tatami mats.

The idea of a factory made Prefabricate house was not Maekawa's original idea. Manyfamous architect had tried to realize the idea. In the beginning of the 20 century, many architects had a dream to change the old society and realize new modern society. They believed workers were the new center player of the new society. So, architects looked for inexpensive modern house. I think, one of the answers were the prefabricate house.

In my everyday job, I can't find any relationship between architectural history and my job. However, home-building industry takes a important role in architectural history and this idea makes my job more meaningful.

Japanese houses 1

My job is in a home-building industry. This time, I would like to write about my job and the present situation regarding Japanese houses.

If you try to get your own detached house in japan, you have 3 choices. A house designed by an architect, a house produced by a big house production company(including my company) or a house built by a local house builder.

For the architect-designed houses, the architect only does the design and he asks some other local house builder to construct it. If you like his design style and can trust him 100%, you can get your ideal house. The cost is up to you.

For the produced house, the company takes care of your house from design to construction. House production companies have their own design teams, production systems, structure systems, transportation systems, and construction systems. So, quality is kept at a very high level. But on the other hand the cost is more expensive than the local built houses. As the production houses are mass produced, there are some limitations on structure and design. A house producter like me is little bit different from an architect. The architect always produces one design for one house, but we produce one system for 10,000 houses. I think, If you really want your own distinct design, the architect house is the best choice.

For the local built house, there are no professional design teams. They decide design through experience and ideas. Compared to the architect house and the produced house, the local builder's house keeps low profile. However, in reality, more than 80% of new houses in Japan are built by local builders

These days, the population of Japan is going down, and people's life styles are changing. Some people want to realize their own ideal house. Because of this, the architect house will never disappear. However the produced house and the local built house must try to accommodate these people in the near future.

The cocoon tower

A very unique piece of architecture is going to open soon at Shinjuku. The cocoon tower is designed by KENZO TANGE ASSOCIATE. It is 50 stories and 203m high. There will be 3 vocational schools and about 10 thousand students in the tower. Among the 3 vocational schools, the fashion school is the oldest, so the concept of the tower is a cocoon producing silk. The round silhouette and white lines which cover the tower look like a cocoon.

The cocoon tower provokes active debates over the pros and cons by it's design. In my opinion, it's design is not good but important for Shinjuku.

To get closer to the tower, the white lines are not a soft curve like silk but are a vivid stripe. At a glance,the facade is designed to give the building a natural look and feel like cocoon. However only 2 patterns are overlayerd and when view up close it looks too artificial. It makes me feel cheated.I think the design is not express cocoon's softness and complexity at all. It's too busy for me.

When you get far from the tower,the facade design fades out and you can see only the silhouette with the other towers in Shinjuku. In many cases, not only a single building but many silhouettes made by many buildings determine the city's image. Given this, the cocoon tower is a unique addition to Shinjuku skyline. I think the variety is the most appealing point of Shinjuku. In conclusion, the cocoon tower's design is not necessarily good but is important for Shinjuku.

archways

A few weeks ago, I had a chance to visit the Tama Art University New Library designed by Toyo Ito. The library has a characteristic space consisting of a series of C. The origin of archways is very old. Even today, we can see them in mosques.

This February, I went to India to see Louis Kahn's architecture. Of course, Louis Kahn' architecture is very beautiful and the mosques are also impressive. I had never seen such stately architecture. In reduced illumination, I felt some kind of religious eternalness. I think the archways are the most important feature of that space. The archways are not simple. The cross section of archways is different at different level, the first level is a square,the next is a little small square, the next is a polygonal shape,the next is simple circle and so on. So,each archways has a complex shape. As a result, the space become a very stately space.

The archways in the Tama Art University New Library are completely different from old mosque archways. They are very simple, thin and abstract. And the space is bright. I can't help feeling the changes of time and advances in technology

A special lecture by Peter Zumthor

This Thursday I had a special lecture by Peter Zumthor at Tokyo University. In this lecture he told me a lot of important things. However, I think the lecture style itself expressed his architectural character.

In many architect's lectures, they talk about a topic they are interested in or their latest works with graphics. But Zumthor's lecture does not. First, he simply introduced himself and told us about his office and his life style. After, he spent all the remaining time having a discussion with us and he didn't use any graphics.

During the discussion, he told us about the site. He told that, " Every site has it's own attractive point. Once you find the attractive point of the site, all you have to do is to utilize the advantages of that." I think an Architect's work is not make an eccentric building, but design architecture that has good harmony with it's surroundings.

Zumthor's architectural character that carefully consider about the site and surroundings has some relationship with his lecture style. I feel he tried to utilize his surroundings through discussion with us

At the end of lecture, he gave us a massage. He said " Just be yourself".
That is also just like him to say that.

Japanese Architecture History

Before talking about Japanses architecture, I'would like to point out features of Japanese Architectural history. Compaer to the European architectural history, the turing point of Japanese architecture history is not claer.

In European architecture history, every period has it's own character and form. And we can easyly distinguish them. Of cource, Japanese history has s claer turning point. But about architecture, turning point is ambiguous.

I think geography is the most biggest reason. Architecture is dicided by the sites and pleople. Diffirent sites and different people make different architecture. In Eourepe, each Architectural period was developed in different site and diffirent ehic group. But japanese arhitecture has been debeloped in small area and Architect has been always same ehnic group. (The distance from Tokyo to Kyoto is about 500km. It's shroter than the distance form Mirano to Roma. It's only a half of the distance form Rome to Paris.)

However, there are so many great archticture in Japan. Mitokusan Nageire-dou is the architecture which has gave me a very big impact. Because the site is crazy. It in the middle of cliff. Today I can't know the reason why peolpe build their temple like this site. But we can still feel the storng intention that make archetecture.

For me, Japanese archtectual history is imaged not a stream of period which has different calacter, but a some kind of mass formed by individual archtecture like Nageire-dou.

coated plywood

Today, we have so many kind of coated plywood. If you use coated plywood, you can get any kind of board you like. First you make a frame which size is depend on you. Second you put coated plywood which is printed with your favorite pattern on the frame. In this way, you can get 100m very light metal board.

The boad made by frame and coated plywood is very useful. It's not expensive and easy to bring. So, it's used in many ways. Tables, bookshelfs, doors, partitions and so on. Using like that board in office is no problem. However I think useing it in house is not good.

The biggest reason is aging. A scratch on the table which made by coated plywood never diapper. And form the first scratch, damages will widen. A scratch on the table which made by pure wood also diaapper, but by the aging it will fade into the background.

Over the life time of a table, If you polish the surface, the pure wood table will regain their brilliance. Even If you don't polish the table it will be remamin close to it's original condition. But the coted plywood table won't. You have to buy new one, and old one is in the garbage

Of course, coated plywood is good for people who like new. But it's not good for people who like to use one for a long time. I would rather latter case.

Moriyama House

Moriyama House was designed by Ryue Nishizawa in 2005. There are 10 seperated rooms. Mr Moriyama is using 4 rooms, his freind from childhood is useing 1 room and the other 5 rooms are rented.

Mr Nishizawa, in his book, wrote that Transparency and Asunder is the principle of this architecture. And that this house looks very different form ambient enviroment which keeps old downtown residential style, but the idea of openhearted life that uses a garden is common.

In urban area in Japan, many of people make fences around their house to protect their privacy. I think fences makes town scape boring. Each house is completely seperated. There is a little greenery. I don't like today's town scape but on the other hand, I know that fances cannot be avoided in Japan. Because usually the site is very small.

The most surpriseing thing to visit here is that I can easily to look inside the rooms. But there are very interseting space like old downtown residential style. I think, If you decide to live in downtown not in a apartment but in a house, you have to chose fence house or Moriyama house.

I like Moriyama house. But in view of Japanese present situation, Moriyama house is only a particuler solution. Fence houses are the most accepable solution.