UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI Date:___________________ I, _________________________________________________________, hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of: in: It is entitled: This work and its defense approved by: Chair: _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ Dynamic Balance: Bringing Traditional Japanese Architecture to the 21st Century A thesis submitted to: The Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati In partial fulfi llment of the requirements for the degree of: Masters of Architecture in the school of Architecture and Interior Design of the College of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning May 25, 2008 by: Lee Warren Dunfi eld Bachelor of Science in Architecture, May 2005 Washington University in St. Louis Committee Chairs: Elizabeth Riorden, Tom Bible Abstract In much contemporary architecture today there exists a disconnect between humans and nature, between humans and a regional, cultural identity. Beginning with the Modernist movement of the early 20th Century, many architects have turned away from reliance on nearby resources and building methods suited to their particular environment and towards the material and technological variety made possible by modern manufacturing and transportation. While the reproduction of buildings of the past would be anachronistic and counter-productive, many older styles, such as Japanese traditional architecture, a focus of this thesis, can offer design techniques to help contemporary buildings refocus on nature and on their specifi c local environment. This project uses these techniques from traditional Japanese architecture to design a contemporary, ecologically-sensitive building in the United States based on unique conditions within the urban landscape and shows that older traditional architecture is relevant to the 21st Century. 1 Table of Contents Abstract 1 Table of Contents 3 List of Illustrations 4 Introduction 7 Thesis Argument Chapter 1: Shortcomings of Contemporary Architecture 10 Chapter 2: The Role of Traditional Styles in 21st Century 13 Chapter 3: The History and Relevance of Japanese Architecture 17 Chapter 4: Design Implications 28 Literary Sources In Praise of Shadows. 38 Form and Space of Japanese Architecture 41 The Contemporary Teahouse: Japan’s Top Architects Redefi ne a Tradition 44 Precedents Katsura Imperial Villa 47 Miho Museum by I.M. Pei 52 International House of Japan 55 Site Analysis 57 Program Analysis 62 Design Outcome 66 Bibliography 69 3 List of Illustrations Fig. 1 Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Phillip Fig. 14 Ichiryusai Hiroshige, Benten Shrine, Johnson, The International Style (New Inokashira Pond, 1856, ink and color York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., on paper. Photo credit: Henry D. Smith 1966), 109. and Ando Hiroshige, Hiroshige: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, (New Fig. 2 Ibid., 181. York: George Brazilller, 1986). Fig. 3 http://travel.3yen.com/ Fig. 15 Kevin Nute, Place, Time and Being in Japanese Architecture (New York: Fig. 4 http://improvementweb.com/bamboo- Routledge, 2004) 15. fl ooring/ Fig. 5 http://www.trhamzahyeang.com/ Fig. 16 Norihisa Mizuno, Miho Museum, (Momodani, Japan: Nissha Printing Co., Fig. 6 By author. 2001) 1. Fig. 7 By author. Fig. 17 http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/03/ japan_temples/source/2.htm Fig. 8 By author. Fig. 18 Kevin Nute, Place, Time and Being Fig. 9 Arata Isozaki, Katsura Imperial Villa in Japanese Architecture (New York: (Milan: Electra Architecture, 2005), 17. Routledge, 2004) 71. Fig. 10 Ibid. Fig. 19 Ibid., 70. Fig. 11 Kazuo Nishi and Kazuo Hozumi, What Fig. 20 Kano Motonobu, Flowers and Birds of is Japanese Architecture? (New York: the Four Seasons, 1535, ink and colors Kodansha International Ltd., 1985), 74. on paper. Photo credit: Kyoto National Museum, ed. Muromachi jidai no Kano- Fig. 12 By author. ha (Kyoto: Kyoto National Museum, 1996). Fig. 13 Kevin Nute, Place, Time and Being in Japanese Architecture (New York: Fig. 21 Kevin Nute, Place, Time and Being Routledge, 2004) 132. in Japanese Architecture (New York: Routledge, 2004) 38 4 Fig. 22 Ibid., 43. Fig. 39 By author Fig. 23 By author. Fig. 40 Arata Isozaki, Katsura Imperial Villa (Milan: Electra Architecture, 2005), 50. Fig. 24 By author. Fig. 41 By author. Fig. 25 By author. Fig. 42 Arata Isozaki, Katsura Imperial Villa Fig. 26 By author. (Milan: Electra Architecture, 2005), 77. Fig. 27 Kevin Nute, Place, Time and Being Fig. 43 Arata Isozaki, Katsura Imperial Villa in Japanese Architecture (New York: (Milan: Electra Architecture, 2005), 125, Routledge, 2004) 118. 140. Fig. 28 Ibid., 119. Fig. 44 http://www.miho.or.jp/english/index.htm Fig. 29 By author. Fig. 45 By author. Fig. 30 By author. Fig. 46 http://www.miho.or.jp/english/index.htm Fig. 31 By author. Fig. 47 By author, source image from http://www.miho.or.jp/english/index.htm Fig. 32 By author. Fig. 48 By author. Fig. 33 By author. Fig. 49 http://www.i-house.or.jp/en/index.html Fig. 34 By author. Fig. 50 Ibid. Fig. 35 By author. Fig. 51 Ibid. Fig. 36 By author, source images from: Arata Isozaki, Katsura Imperial Villa (Milan: Fig. 52 By author. Electra Architecture, 2005), 81, 105, 145; and Kazuo Nishi and Kazuo Hozumi, Fig. 53 By author. What is Japanese Architecture? (New York: Kodansha International Ltd., 1985), Fig. 54 By author. 78-79. Fig. 55 By author. Fig. 37 Arata Isozaki, Katsura Imperial Villa (Milan: Electra Architecture, 2005), 66. Fig. 56 By author. Fig. 38 By author. Fig. 57 http://www.friendsofmeigs.org/ 5 Fig. 58 By author. Fig. 59 By author. Fig. 60 By author. Fig. 61 Google Earth v3.2, Google Software Inc., retrieved on May 11, 2008. Fig. 62 By author. Fig. 63 By author, source images from: Google Earth v3.2, Google Software Inc., retrieved on May 11, 2008. Fig. 64 By author, source images from: Google Earth v3.2, Google Software Inc., retrieved on May 11, 2008. Fig. 65 By author. Fig. 66 By author. Fig. 67 By author. Fig. 68 By author. Fig. 69 By author. 6 Introduction Today’s world is characterized of the Industrial Age and the wasteful, by an increasing disconnect between consumerist, ecologically irresponsible humans and nature;, between humans attitudes that it has engendered. and a regional, cultural identity. In Japan, This is not to suggest that for instance, historic buildings have been architects should attempt to recreate torn down by the hundreds, and miles the buildings of the past in order to of natural riverbanks have been covered regain identity. The world has changed; with cold, anonymous concrete, all in the social conditions and construction the name of modernization. According technologies that shaped those older to many well-respected advocates of styles do not apply to contemporary ecological design including James society. This is also not to say that Wines, architect and author of Green ancient traditions in architecture have Architecture, this mentality can be traced nothing to offer. Many older styles, such back to the early of the 20th Century, as Japanese traditional architecture, a when early modernists turned their backs focus of this thesis, suggest a distinct on traditional forms and materials of sense of place and cultural identity, as construction characteristic of the regions well as a reverence for nature. Similarly, in which they worked, and instead drew contemporary architecture has much inspiration from the material abundance to offer to the traditional. Despite its 7 shortcomings, and its intentional rejection about discovering the architectural of other styles, there are often remarkable principles behind certain buildings and parallels between contemporary Western using only the design techniques that and traditional Japanese architectural are appropriate and compatible with concepts pertaining to space, proportion, contemporary architecture. Aspects of and structural independence. traditional Japanese architecture were The idea of the infusion chosen specifi cally for this thesis because of traditional architecture with of their characteristics of accentuating modernization, present in architectural (and even recreating) the visible character approaches such as Critical Regionalism, of particular natural environments. The then becomes important. By applying problem with urban landscapes in the traditional design methodologies based United States is that they are anonymous on green principles and a recognition of and no longer natural, so this thesis is place to a progressive design process, about fi nding unique conditions within contemporary architecture can be created the urban landscape and accentuating that avoids falling into the Modernist trap them, using traditional Japanese of “technology for technology’s sake” and techniques to create unique landscapes ensures that at its core, it is a response to and distinctive views that are appropriate its specifi c environment and is refl ective to their local setting. of a local history and identity. Thus, by using specifi c techniques Again, this thesis is not about the and design methodology of traditional recreation of masterpieces in traditional Japanese architecture, such as Katsura Japanese architecture, but rather it is Imperial Villa, and modern precedents 8 that reinterpret these ancient ideas, like acknowledgement of) place, and show the works of Tadao Ando and I. M. Pei, that traditional architecture is relevant to this thesis will generate an architectural the 21st Century. strategy