Architectural History and Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Architectural History and Theory - Essay Example This was brought about by a renaissance of interest in Japanese building, due in part to two publications and an imported building, the appearance of which in itself was an inspiring recommendation. Both publications date from 1936. The first is a 36 page booklet with cardboard covers by Bruno Taut, a Prussian, who, throughout the 1920's, had been an engineer and designer of housing communities in Germany. In 1933 Taut went to Japan as an authority on architecture as well as industrial design. He spent some of his time examining and re-evaluating Japanese architecture, and on October 30, 1935, he revealed his conclusions in a Lecture Series on Japanese Culture sponsored by the Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai (Society for International Cultural Relations) at the Peers' Club in Tokyo. The talk with 25 illustrations was published the next year in essay form, under the title Fundamentals of Japanese Architecture (Taut 1936). Historical Development Bruno Taut took the position that the West misle d the Japanese into thinking the peak of their architectural achievement was the ornate sanctuaries at Nikko (Stennott 2004). In truth, he said, Nikko shows an undigested conglomeration of borrowed elements that are not Japanese by any means. Sure, simple inhabitant taste is to be found in the early Shinto shrines at Ise, in medieval Japanese farmhouses, and particularly in the Katsura Villa near Kyoto, the last of which was planned and built during the second quarter of the seventeenth century. Not like the contemporary group at Nikko, weighted down by the "ostentatious architectural conceptions of the war-lords," the Katsura articulates a freedom of design "in which harmony arises from absence of coercion," therefore becoming "a totally isolated miracle in the cultured world." The author has represented his favorite villas by connotation "international" and "eternal." The Katsura Villa was a return to inborn Japanese artistry, after centuries of being deceived by foreign imitation s, brought about by the stabilizing force of Zen principles that eschewed irrelevant ornamentation and abnormalities of proportion. Buildings referred to in the text are signified among the plates at the back of Taut's book, and these comprise a height of the Hiunkaku, of which the staircase leading up from the lake has been compared to the suspended flight of steps at Falling Water. The second publication of 1936 was Jiro Harada The Lesson of Japanese Architecture, issued at London and Boston. C. Geoffrey Holme, writing in the Introduction, states that the "Lesson" is proposed for the Western world, and may be "summarized in brief as standardization, diversity in unity, conventionality to a mode of living, connexion with nature, simplicity and, certainly, usefulness to purpose" (Harada 1936). Harada's text comprises three chapters, entitled, "A Short Historical Survey," "General Observations," and "The Japanese House Toda." They include seven figures and 158