Architectural Translation from Traditional Japan

I.., Permanence and Chance: Architectural Translation from Traditional Japan by MINDY BETH LEHRMAN B.F.A., Boston University (1977) Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, February 1982 Signature of Autho _ Departrft*itof Architecture, January 1982 Certified by Eric Dinhcich. Ass.ociate Professor of Architecture Accepted by Edward Robbins, Chairman, Departmental Committee on Graduate Students l~niz~t ~JMmndv Lehrman 1982 OF TECHNOLOGY JAIN 27 1982 LBRARIES Room 14-0551 77 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139 Ph: 617.253.2800 MITLibraries Email: [email protected] Document Services http:l/libraries.mit.eduldocs DISCLAIMER OF QUALITY Due to the condition of the original material, there are unavoidable flaws in this reproduction. We have made every effort possible to provide you with the best copy available. If you are dissatisfied with this product and find it unusable, please contact Document Services as soon as possible. Thank you. The images contained in this document are of the best quality available. Permanence and Change: Architectural Translation from Traditional Japan by Mindy Beth Lehrman Submitted to the Department of Architecture on January 13, 1982, In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture. ABSTRACT There is much to learn from traditional Japanese architecture. This thesis distills principles from traditional Japanese house design. It also explores the synthesis of these principles into an American context. I have first analyzed the traditional house where I lived in Kyoto. I have filtered general design principles, and then I have transformed them to a Boston waterfront site. The design The author hereby grants to M.I.T. is one prototype of how these principles may be interpreted. permission to reproduce and to distribute copies of this thesis document in whole or in part. Thesis Supervisor : Eric Dluhosch Title: Associate Professor of Architecture Content Introduction ... 6 APPEND1 XES .... ........ 3155 ANALYSIS ... ....13. Japanese Industrialized Housing Chart ... 156s Traditional House ... 15 Case Studies Temperature, Comfort, and the Bath ... 53 1. Santa Cruz Teahouse ... 158 ... 2. Jane's House ... 164 Zen .67 Geomancy ... 176 Order and Participation ... 77 Contrast, Rhythm, and Repetition ... 89 Renewability 95 Garden 101 DESIGN 105 REFERENCE TITLES AND PAGE NUMBERS ARE ADJACENT TO THE PERTINENT INFORMATION. Kireji .... ... 07 PUBLISHER, PLACE, AND COPYWRITE DATES ARE LISTED IN THE BIBLIOGRAPHY. Panorama . 113s ...... Program Description ... 114 Houses 126 ... THE BATH ... 151 ... Bibliography ..... ... 18 rsJ I wish to thank everyone in Japan and America who helped me with this work. I- Bash3 declared to his disciples that My thesis has to do with the transformation of traditional the two principles of his school of poetry were change and permanence. Japanese design principles into an American context. My He wanted his poetry to "change with fascination with the topic became indelible when I lived every year and be fresh with every in Kyoto, Japan from July 1978 to April 1979. I found month." He also said, "I do not seek to follow in the footsteps of that the most essential difference between the houses of the men of old; I seek the things traditional Japan (i.e. a style developed in the 17th and they sought." 18th centuries), and of America is that the Japanese Bash5 (644-94) houses embody theological principles based on an alert Master of free linked-verse and of the 17-syllable haiku relationship of ourselves to others, ourselves to nature, pift and ourselves to ourselves. The traditional Japanese house is constructed with relatively strict systems, recog- nizable to the inhabitants. The houses could reflect what people have universally, but also promote individuality; :~- ~ not individuality despite the community but with it. The openness of the Japanese house and its active relationship -A 6 with the vicissitudes of nature enables us to recognize ourselves in our everyday experience. - C A problem in translating Japanese design into American is that the American has an obsession with outer forms, 4-0 r. tCI) whereas in the Japanese the visual and physical is secon- dary to the philosophical and spiritual. However, to com- mam 2 0 - municate ideas there must be an outer form. I am filtering the underlying ideas from each respective cultural and 'I geographical setting and develoDing a bridge by which U 41 aspects of quality in the Japanese house may be used eI- 'W* U in ) ~I~,umwue I- The Japanese scholar, Donald Keene in the American. says that this was the reaction of a sensitive spirit against a 17th century "freedom" in poetry which The thesis is organized into two main parts. The first is often produced chaotic results, a written and includes analysis. The second is design. In spirit who also was wary of the staleness and sterility which might the margins throughout the entire thesis is an auxiliary come from excessive study and imita- section I call - tion of earlier masterpieces. In this way, Bash5's greatest poetry is an "expression of the point where which is a collection of raw, visual and verbal markers the momentary intersects the constant and eternal." This is reminiscent which I hope is an evocative experience for anyone with the of "mythical time", which Mircea desire to go hiking more deeply into those ideological Eliade says people of all societies try to reach; when the present meets woods. the eternal in a moment of rebirth. "Born of the same consciousness, but The range of this thesis is limited to an urban setting, realized to a different scale and with an emphasis on housing issues. A site on the Boston different materials." Ma; A Sense of Place, p. 125 waterfront was selected for the design project. The design is the result of an imposed system (mine), and eccentric clients (me, for the sake of this exploration). I recognize that a tradition or organizational system enhances moments of inspiration or innovation. I want the system Basho quoted from Japanese Literature: to be born from something other than competitive economics An Introduction for Western Readers and energy thrift, asis most often the case in Architecture Eliade information from The Myth o today. Of course I rely on the materials and the techniques the Eternal Return available, and sometimes even on other people's prototypes, in order to be understood. A great achievement for me would be to stretch the spectrum of understanding and thus to create a cultural magic carpet on which the observer may iFFM In New York, the Whitney Museum of Art has an annual retrospective which is supposed to illustrate the best style of the times. One year, around the turn of the century, the work became so disparate there was ride. To push to the limits of organizational restraints no longer ONE leading style. Depen- ding upon the critic, this was is for me the essence of creativity. either freedom at last, or chaos. I have shied away from too much "reality" in thisthesis ... both permit and induce all my personal expedition into design theories and potentials. humanity to realize full lasting economic and physical success plus The design is meant as an example of American architecture enjoyment of all the Earth without with sensitivity to the Japanese, but it is not the only one individual interfering with or being advantaged at the expense of possible solution. I am setting up a vocabulary for another." my own design work related to present technology and sym- I Seem to Be a Verb., p. 11 bolism. This design is my model: how one designer puts the concepts to use. "A way of thinking that is directed solely to what is profitable cannot perceive the vital coherence of all This design is also my way of testing the hypothesis that things in nature." Sensitive Chaos p. 10 principles of quality can be transformed from a Japanese context to an American. Still, it is merely an academic simulation and not an actua experience. It is still "Duchanp felt that the dead should not be permitted to be so much theory until tested in the physical world. stronger than the living." The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp,, p. 20 It is not assumed that the reader shares the belief that the synthesis of traditional Japanese design concepts into an American context should take place at all. Therefore, the thesis makes exolicit the quality of traditional Japanese design which parallel intention of western architects: designers of the physical environment. The written chapters are purposely infused with appendices of 9 illustration and analogy. In this way, I am ;iecing Heraclitus together ideas from many realms. I hope these vig- "Wisdom, then consists in grasping nettes invite images and places from the reader's own reper- the underlying formula which is common to all things." toire as well. from The Wisdom of the West, p. 26 In order to translate the essence rather than the physical commodities from Japan, I will first describe and analyse "With time, however, the spirit will show itself more powerful than the traditional Japanese house, using the house in which matter." I lived and with which I am most intimately familiar. Alvar Aalto, from Sketches, p. 95 Further, I will develop certain themes I find present in that house. Later I will try to use them in my design. "The visible form is not regarded as the reality." Mfa; A Sense of Place, p. 154 I initially chose three areas of focus: 1. renewability, 2. indoor-outdoor relationships, 3. scale and proportion. As the months passed, each of these focuses were altered so that they began to include many other headings. The headings which I can most clearly categorize and articulate are now listed in the main body of the written section.

Load more