Light and Shadow

week 10

     This week is last week in which I write my blog. It is "Light and Shadow" that I will tell you about last week. Do you know a book entitled "In Praise of Shadow (陰翳礼讃)"? It is an essay which was written by Junichiro Tanizaki (谷崎潤一郎). It was published in "Traffic Economy" from 1933 to 1934, and is often cited when you think about Japanese construction and design. In addition, "In Praise of Shadow" has many remarkable parts except aspects of design, for example, the author's own sense of values, life, and beauty of Japanese people at the time and so on.


     Then, I summarized "In Praise of Shadow".

     It is "shadow" that is an important element of traditional Japanese beauty. Japanese people begin to use the conveniences of Western civilization these days (at the time when "In Praise of Shadow" was written). But Western civilization was established on the soil of Western culture, so, if the conveniences of civilization had been imported to Japan, the civilization suitable for Japanese people would have been established on the soil of Japanese culture.
     Although Western people find value in shiny things, Japanese people, Oriental people hate shiny things. Japanese people prefer darkness to light. Of course, Western houses have roof, but it is used in order to surpass the rain, and Western houses have the system to let in sunlight. So Western houses do not have the eaves. On the other hand, Japanese houses needed to prevent driving rain, so the eaves became larger and the indoor became space of darkness. However, the ancestors of Japanese people have discovered the beauty from the darkness. For example, lacquered tableware is very harmonious with light of candles twinkling in the darkness at the dim space. Ikebana and hanging scroll itself is not something to appreciate, and harmony between them and the floor and walls (=床うつり) is important.
     We create beauty in nothing. It is said that beauty not dwell on the object but exist in the figure of darkness which the darkness of the object and the object, in the light and shade.


     Next, I will state what I felt when reading "In Praise of Shadow". The traditional Japanese houses have a little light penumbra created in space by akarishoji (明かり障子) during the day. The light transmitted through such Japanese paper softly show anything in the room, and make facial expression gentle. In Japan which is hot and humid, the sunlight arrives at the ground through the thin filter of the moisture, so the natural scenery looks hazy. The ancestors of Japanese people who have looked at such views of light every day have a high sensitivity to faint appearance. Therefore, aesthetics in Japanese construction,  compared to paintings, look like an unshaded flat painting style and aesthetics in Western construction look like stereoscopic representation and rules of perspective using chiaroscuro in many cases.

Compare with Foreign Countries

week 9

     First of all, I will tell you about the affairs of Japanese houses before the affairs of houses of foreign countries. Life span of Japanese houses is about 22 years to 30 years. This figure shows that Japanese houses must be the reconstruction of each generation, that you have to think about the next reconstruction of the house as soon as you finish reconstructing it, and that the value of property of your house which is filled with your love becomes close to zero in only a few 20 years. In sort, your house which you think as property becomes your liability as soon as it completes. Moreover, if the reconstruction of houses is done frequently, incongruous cityscapes are created because the design of each house depend on the fashion of the time in which it is built, and it is no earth-friendly because a large amount of garbage is discharge.





     Next, I will tell you about the affairs of European and American houses. It is said that life span of European and American houses is about 70 years to 140 years. It is more than 4 times as long as that of Japanese houses. For example, in the United Kingdom, it is common to succeed to their houses during three generations. Moreover, it is said that American houses go up in value every year. There are few houses which become liability as soon as it is built like Japanese houses. It is because European and American houses are "sustainable housing" which has an excellent durability and design. So in Japan countless used houses are "vacant houses", whereas in Europe and America people think used houses as valuable houses and acvtively buy and sell it. Other merits of longer life span of housing are to be able to keep harmony cityscapes and to be able to reduce garbage in reconstruction of houses.


      Then what should you do in order to build "sustainable houses" in Japan? We have to think about the cause of shorter life span of Japanese houses in order to know the answer. One of the causes of it is "insulation". Japanese houses have structure to let in a air in order to spend a comfortable time in summer, but recently the building without clearance began to be made in order to shut out the cold in winter. Since then, the moisture in the room is close and is absorbed by the structure such as pillars in the walls, and water droplets are generated by the difference in temperature between indoor and outdoor around the window and on the wall. Water penetrates into the inside of structure of the house. This moisture rots a structure to support the building and encourage the development of mold. As a result, the life span of the house becomes shorter. High thermal insulate system and the system to be able to control the amount of moisture is required in order to prolong the life span of the house.

     By the way, the government also begin to think about the measures against "sustainable houses". In 2008, "200 years housing (200年住宅)" was promoted and in 2009, the "Bill about the Promotion of residential recycling" was submitted. As th above, the whole country is working on "sustainable houses".

Architectural Techniques

week8

     There is a variety of residential construction in Japan. Only Japan has such many residential constructions in the world. The main method is the following six kinds.

・Conventional method of construction (timber framework method) 【在来工法 (木造軸組工法)】
・Wood-frame construction (wooden frame wall construction) 【ツーバイフォー工法 (木造枠組壁工法)】
・Prefabrication method (lightweight steel frame) 【プレハブ工法 (軽量鉄骨造)】
・Steel Weight 【重量鉄骨造】
・Reinforced Concrete (Reinforced RC) 【鉄筋コンクリート造 (RC造)】
・Log house 【ログハウス】

 

In addition to this, there is a method derived from these six kinds, but these almost can be classified into these six. Here, I summarized each characteristic of three of them. 

Conventional method of construction (timber framework method) 【在来工法 (木造軸組工法)】

     Conventional method of construction (timber framework method) is the most mainstream in Japan. About 80% of Japanese houses are built with it. When the Great Hanshin Earthquake occurred, that the buildings which were built with conventional method of construction collapsed have been widely known, but most of them were old buildings which was built before 1981 and buildings which satisfied earthquake resistance standards. There was little damage to all new buildings since 1989. Japanese has been used to this method since ancient times, so you can not talk about home building in which you can feel the warmth of wood throughout.

Wood-frame construction (wooden frame wall construction) 【ツーバイフォー工法 (木造枠組壁工法)】

     Wood-frame construction (wooden frame wall construction) is the most mainstream in North America. In North America, more than 90% of houses have been built in this method. The merits of this method are reasonable, excellent productivity and seismicity, excellent fire resistance, and fashionable outside appearance. This method born from the North American style of life in which one builds oｒ reforms one's house by oneself is based on standard system of 2 inches in order to obtain cheap material everywhere and at any time. Moreover, this method has the monocoque structure which support the building with surfaces, so it has 1.5 to 2 times as high seismicity as conventional method of construction.

Prefabrication method (lightweight steel frame) 【プレハブ工法 (軽量鉄骨造)】

     Prefabrication method (lightweight steel frame) has the purpose of mass production like industrial products. This method uses "brace" instead of bracing of conventional method of construction in order to strengthen the building. This biggest advantage of this method is that quality of this is stable and this can be supplied in large quantities because of this industrialization.

     You can not decide which structure is the strongest. If you build a house to observe seismic standards required by law, the house can withstand a major earthquake. In addition, you can not decide which structure you the most comfortably live in, but Japanese commonly like to live in conventional method of construction.