A perfect storm, modernity in architecture federated industrial production, new materials, new methods and posited a radical transformation of classic architectural paradigms. To replace Palladian regulating geometry, modernists considered vernacular principles instead; universal values of sheltering and anchoring informed new housing ideas. From Gottfried Semper to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, to Frank Lloyd Wright and Alvar Aalto, locus became the inspiration to define space, function and aesthetics. Japanese traditions in particular, with ingrained material modularity and connection with nature seemed particularly in tune with modernist values. The influence of modernity on Japanese design culture was equally important, specifically when it came to training architects. An understudy of Antonin Raymond, Makoto Masuzawa's obsession with the minimal house is iconic of the era’s architectural crosspollination.
Working to respond to the Japanese housing authority's post war building mandates pushing mass-reproducibility, Masuzawa's 9-Tsubo proposal illustrates the relationship between a simple adaptable planning system and similar attitudes that led to Le Corbusier's Citrohan house. The small dwelling was arranged on a square grid (9 square modules made up of 2 tatami mats laid side by side). The juxtaposed 0.9x1.8m tatami mats outline the basic modular unit of 1.8m x 1.8m. This unit multiplied by three in x and y axis shapes the ground floor plan. The double height section turns horizontal space on its end and develops a vertical open space. The «double height» or la double hauteur in the Citrohan house developed by Le Corbusier intended to democratize spatial qualities of a larger more opulent structure. The timber frame used standard timber dimensions, with panelized infill elements revealing the basic grid geometry both horizontally and vertically. The principle of the tsubo (9, 12 or 15 modules) offers a vision of how architects envisioned mass-production of dwellings; The smallest units of space would be multiplied and scaled to shape larger dwellings made from the same components. Again here the link between the Tsubo, the General Module studied in Japan by architect Ikebe Kiyoshi or even Bemis's modular coordination in the USA were the applied tenets of both the minimal dwelling and architects’ vision for serially produced dwellings.
9-tsubo house axonometric
No comments:
Post a Comment