Frank Lloyd Wright フランク ロイド ライト

Here is my school essay regarding Frank Lloyd Wright.

Yodoko Guest House

There are fourteen building designs, which Frank Lloyd Wright has done in Japan. Six building were built, but two of them were destroyed by the 1923 Magnitude 7.9 Great Kanto earthquake (around Tokyo.)

Frank Lloyd Wright traveled outside of America for the first time, and went to Japan with his wife. There were 37 years old in the year, and he spent two months touring natural and historical landmarks from Nikko (North East of Tokyo) all the way down to (Shikoku island) Takamatsu.

He made a contract to build the new Imperial Hotel in Tokyo in late 1911. After a year of project delays and several trans-Pacific crossings, Wright finally took up part-time residence in Tokyo in January 1917. (Wrightian Architectural Archives Japan)

In 1918, Wright made a design plan for a second house for Tazaemon Yamamura who was the eighth-generation brewer of the famous sake “Sakuramasamurne,” in Nada (near Kobe.) It took a while to be completed, because he put this project aside to complete the Imperial Hotel. (which was done in 1922.)

The Yamamura house was completed in 1924 at a small hill in Ashiya City, Hyogo prefecture, surrounded in green. Asiya City is now known as an executive, upper-class residential area. From 1947, it became the property of Yodogawa Steel Works, LTD.., (known as YODOKO), and was used as an official residence for the company president. After a while renting to individuals, it designated a National Important Cultural Asset in May, 1974. It was repaired for preservation and started to open to the public as YODOKO Guest House.

Unlike his Midwestern Prairie houses, it was built by side of the hill top, (kind of like houses by the cliff at Malibu, CA) so four story building is kind of hanging along side of the hill which is surrounded by nature like Wright’s style, (cherry tress in particular.) The resident can get the best views from any floors’ balcony. I think that it is ecological thinking that he did not destroy the mountain to build the house. Actually, my housing area is at the bottom of mountain, and a real estate company literally cut out most of the part of the hill to build a house on a flat surface.

Another big difference of his style house in America is that there are three Japanese style rooms (can be open the sliding doors to connect in one room) on the third floorchiw h covered with tatami mats (straw-matted), and shoji doors (Japanese hand made paper sliding doors) and Shoji door closet. There were not his original design, but provided by a strong request from the client. I understand that the traditional sake brewer like Yamamura needed some place to sit down on the floor and relax. The construction of Japanese style rooms were carried out by Wright’s best disciples, Arata Endo and Makoto Minami, rather than Wright himself. I believe that collaborating with Japanese disciples made its original style.

Purpose:

According to the “Yodoko Guest House site,” Wright always used nature that is his concepts, and aimed at a unification of geography and buildings, and harmony with the surrounded environment… The building stands naturally along the slope without disturbing the ridgeline of the hill.” For approach to Yodoko Guest House, unlike it has an entrance near the road, the entrance is provided in the remotest part of the building. That intentionally made residents and visitors walk up to the entrance along the approach, as made them feel like they ended up arriving a mountain cottage like it is surrounded in nature.

Wright created the many large windows on the western side to bring natural light in the house. Eastern side of the salon on the second floor has a large window like a picture frame so that the scenery function as a painting in a frame. The window looks usual as an interior design without anything, so he attached a built-in couch right underneath of the window for visitors to enjoy. (see photo) There is a great view of Ashiya City and beyond from the balcony. (see photo) It said in the website “wide and spacious,” but I think he designed more spacious building in the U.S.. But since not many Japanese have a house with balcony, as a personal housing in Japan, it would be large enough. It has a chimney on top of the door which is noticeable to people look at the house from far bottom.

Materials :

He used particular materials using for this house. For the interior and exterior, Oyaishi stone which he sculpted (I mean, designed for) formative art of nature motifs. “Oyaishi” stone came from Oya-machi in Utsunomiya City, Tochigi prefecture which is also used for the Old Imperial Hotel. It look massive as other Prarie house, and it is also soft and easy to process for curving designs. I think it shows well as his experimentation of design in Japan about Mayan Revival architecture. (see Imperial Hotel, Tokyo site, and Mayan Revival architecture, wikipedia)

Wright designed a lot of built-in furniture everywhere in the house (it reminds me of Winchester house) including cabinet, shelves, and couches. Most of the furniture is made of mahogany, instead of local Japanese cedar, pine and cypress. This is because mahogany has inconspicuous grain than Japanese woods which is said that he think that their conspicuous grain would kill the decorative designs he created in each rooms. Note that geometric design table and chairs in the saloon on the second floor were designed by Yodoko, which they tried to match with the mahogany furniture, and made them based on Wright’s design philosophy.

Lastly, most of the building is made of concrete, but clay wall is used in several interiors, including the east side of entrance wall, the walls on the west side of the Japanese-style rooms, and the northern side stairs of the Japanese-style room on the third floor. The clay wall is a typical Japanese wall construction technique for wooden buildings where in clay is coated onto frames made by tried together (meshed) bamboo trees. This method was actually done by Wright’s disciple Endo and Minami. Clay walls are strong even though they are thin, so that rooms can be made bigger. (Opposite of his Middle Western Prairie house, think of a small island need a lots of space for population of almost as same as the U.S.) They also function to protect tatami mats from humidity.

Coming from dry weather place, he miscalculated a little about the humidity of Japan. He designed the ventilation holes in the second floor, for wind and lights effect, originally had wire screens. Now glasses are installed to protect from humidity and rain. It seems that he did not expect much of rain in the rainy season in June, and typhoon in late summer.

Referece:

Wrightian Architectural archives Japan

http://www.wrightinjapan.org/eng_waaj/e_buildings/dsgn03yamamura_e.html

http://www.wrightinjapan.org/eng_waaj/e_buildings/dsgn00top_e.html

http://www.wrightinjapan.org/eng_waaj/e_waaj/wrightflash_e.html

Yodoko Guest House

http://www.yodoko.co.jp/geihinkan/tour_e/index_e.html

(Click on the arrow for the online building tour!)

http://www.yodoko.co.jp/geihinkan/himitu/himitu01/index_e.html

(Click on the bottom links for more secrets.)

Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Hotel%2C_Tokyo

Maya Revival Style, Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Revival_Style

Buildings at Higobashi Osaka 肥後橋駅周辺ビルと窓の反射 7/25/15

肥後橋駅周辺ビルとビルの窓の反射

Buildings around Higobashi station Osaka and the window reflection

5/19/14 Yokohama Akarenga souko 横浜赤レンガ倉庫

疲れているのでもう帰ろうと思ったのですが、ライトアップがいいと聞いたのでつい行ってしまいました。。
あまりにもよく聞くのでいかにも観光客的かと思ったのですが。。
地元の人もデートとか遊びに来ているようでした。

A large clock at Tennoji Station underground

They have been doing construction and when they finished and took off the wall, I found the large clock in front of the department store and subway entrance.

Julia Morgan’s style

Julia Morgan was born in 1872. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in Civil Engineering and also studied architecture design at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

What I think different from other architect like Frank Lloyd Wright or Tadao Ando which when we see the building and notice their styles right away. Tadao Ando, a Japanese architect who has works around the world known for his bere concrete structure styles, and many follower Japanese architects used similar style of his. In case of Julia Morgan, she doesn’t have her own original material and/or design, but devotedly follow her clients’ wishes and ideas. She mainly worked for her patron, William Randolph Hearst, but she continuously worked both big and small projects with or without his support until her age of 78. She was able to design many kinds of materials depending on her clients’ need, availability of materials, space size, and it’s surrounding atmosphere. Her style is conservative and she designed Renaissance Revival, Tudor, Spanish Colonial, Mediterranean, Islamic and Asian styles. I am amazed her dexterousness and flexibility to challenge many styles of designs. I think in her time, especially as a woman, it must be hard to convince her creditability and ability.

Within many styles she did, she said herself that she has a fondness for the California Arts and Crafts style that Bernard Maybeck inspired her.

(http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2003/0326/culture_1-1.html) Just at a glance of her tile design in the Module 6, session 5 image, I could tell the influence of Art & Craft Movement which developed in England in the 1860s. They were against the growing industrialization of Victorian Britain, and believed in the equality of all the arts and the importance and pleasure of work. So they tended to make simple and organic design within the commercial objects including buildings and interiors.

(http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/british_galleries/bg_styles/Style09a/index.html)

“Throughout her career, she designed nearly 800 projects in California and Hawaii.”

(http://www.hearstcastle.com/history/julia_morgan.asp)

Just by looking at some of her works, (chosen from the Julia Morgan Index.

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/jmindex/genericindex.html)

she designed different materials for housing and public buildings. For example, Aurora Stull House was made of redwood shingles,

(http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/jmsfhouses/jmsfstull.html)

and YMCA at Chinatown, San Francisco, and Emanu-el Sisterhood Residence (now the San Francisco Zen Center) were made with red brick.

(http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/jmmethchinese/jmmethchinese.html

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/jmemanu/jmemanu.html)

Other buildings like Oakland YWCA, Fairmont Hotel, and Hearst Building in San Francisco were made with concrete. They were covered with plaster and encrusted with glazed terra cotta ornament.

(http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/jmywcaoak/jmywcaoak.html

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/jmfairmont/jmfairmont.html

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/jmhearst/jmhearst.html)

Some house like Abraham Rosenberg House has a combination of both. It covered with concrete, but was timbered with redwood and painted over.

(http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/jmrosenberg/jmrosenberg.html)

It apparently has her consideration for withstanding fires and earthquakes. After, 1906 San Francisco, and 1923 The Berkeley Fire, she tried to reinforced with her former houses and built new houses with stronger materials.

Despite of her planning of different materials used and style of structures, she utilized her design skills where she learned at l’Ecole des Beaux Art in Paris.

“I like to mix that tradition with the sophisticated elements of classicism that I learned at l’Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and with the demands of the client and the environment, both natural and man-made.”(http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2003/0326/culture_1-1.html)

Almost all her buildings have her own unique ornament design, such as you see in the Star of David icon on the iron balcony of it loggia at the second floor of the San Francisco Zen Center.

(http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/jmemanu/sidedet.jpg)

Another Arts and Craft style that she was influenced from was symmetrical façade. Weather it is a small house or the massive Hearst Castle, symmetrical design made it looks as grace and simple. As an engineer, she could also concern with lighting effect in 3D form.

“I like to give illusion of space with ceiling designs. I consider how the room will be furnished. I think about how much natural light will filter into the room from the windows.”

Not talking about hash light coming in, but she made the subtle lighting coming though the building to have the entire feeling of the hallway, calm and peaceful. (see Hallway inside the Chinatown, San Francisco and YWCA – Interior, Oakland, CA in the websites.

http://www.architectureweek.com/cgi-bin/awimage?dir=2003/0326&article=culture_1-1.html&image=12103_image_3.jpg

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/jmywcaoak/jmywcaoak2.html)

-End-

Source:

http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2003/0326/culture_1-1.html

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/jmindex/genericindex.html

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/jmywcaoak/jmywcaoak.html

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/jmywcaoak/jmywcaoak2.html

http://www.sfzc.org/cc/display.asp?catid=2,71&pageid=10

http://www.juliamorgan.org/story.shtml

http://www.hearstcastle.com/history/julia_morgan.asp

http://www.hearstcastle.com/history/the_castle.asp

http://www.architectureweek.com/cgi-bin/awimage?dir=2003/0326&article=culture_1-1.html&image=12103_image_3.jpg

http://www.architectureweek.com/cgi-bin/awimage?dir=2003/0326&article=culture_1-1.html&image=12103_image_1.jpg

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/jmsfhouses/jmsfwatt.html

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/jmmethchinese/jmmethchinese.html

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/jmemanu/jmemanu.html

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/jmfairmont/jmfairmont.html

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/jmsfhouses/jmsfstull.html

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/jmhearst/jmhearst.html

http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/british_galleries/bg_styles/Style09a/index.html

http://www1.walthamforest.gov.uk/wmg/home.htm

http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/ando.html

Julia Morgan

Julia Morgan

Julia Morgan is known for being one of the first female architects born here in San Francisco.  She grew up in the bay area in Oakland.  She was a very small woman in size, just over 5 feet and 100 pounds.  Despite her physical appearance, her character was very strong.  She graduated high school in Oakland in 1890 and furthered her education at University of California Berkeley in 1894.  She studied  civil engineering and received her degree.

Julia Morgan was a student and friend of Bernard Maybeck, fellow architect and and resident of the bay area.  Bernard Maybeck wished to see Julia's talent grow and persuaded her to apply to Ecole des Beaus-Arts in Paris.  The first time Julia applied she was rejected because the school was all male and no female students were allowed to attend.  She applied a second time despite her rejection and was again denied.  The school claimed their reason of her rejection to be her failing the exam to enter the program.  Two years later Julia took the test again, this time passing.  She chose to study architecture and graduated as the first woman to recieve a degree at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.  Her degree read:

"Artist and Engineer; Designer of simple dwellings and stately homes, of great buildings nobly planned to further the centralized activities of her fellow citizens; Architect in whose works harmony and admirable proportions bring pleasure to the eye and peace to the mind." (http://www.usdreams.com/Morgan22.html)

After leaving Paris she returned to San Francisco, her birthplace, working for Galen Howard and friend Bernard Maybeck.  John Galen Howard won a competition to design the main architectural plan for University of California Berkeley.  Julia worked on details of a building on the campus called the Mining building in memory of Hearst.  She also worked on drawing the elevations of the Master Plan.  Morgan then moved onto the Hearst Greek Theater.

Julia Morgan left the firm and then decided to open her own office in San Francisco,

1904.  She quickly became a well known and established architect in her residential area.  She worked on building beautiful homes in Oakland, Clairmont and in the Piedmont hills for prominent families.  Juilia had a refined, subtle and gracious style in her architecture using craft sytle, earthtones, horizontal lines, and working with materials like exposed redwood.  A well known house Julia worked on is the North Star House in Grass Valley, California.  She also worked on designing the El Campanil Bell tower located in Oakland.  The tower is on Mills College in Oakland.  The tower is famous for withstanding the earthquake in 1906. 

Although the earthquake in 1906 was devastating to the city of San Francisco and the bay area, it was an amazing career opportunity for Julia Morgan.  The earthquake happened just two years after she opened her own architectural firm in San Francisco.  She was commissioned to reconstruct the Fairmont hotel on the top of Nob Hill after the earthquake.  She also worked on building YMCA buildings in California, Utah, Hawaii, and the Asilomar Conference Center.

Morgan's most famous commission was soon to come.  In 1919 William Randolph Hearst selected her to construct the Hearst Castle on a $11 million plot of land he had inherited in San Simeon, California.  For the next 28 years Morgan worked on the Hearst Castle.  One of her jobs was to find and purchase things like Reindeer for the castle's zoo, priceless antiques from europe and Moss from Iceland.  She also helped Hearst  incorporate his collection of art into all of the architectural design.  Morgan designed everything in the tiniest detail.   After her commission to do the Hearst Castle, Hearst also hired her to work on many more projects for him including the Examiner Building in Los Angeles.  In the 1930's Mogan's work at the castle slowed due to Randoph's financial state.  Julia Morgan had many other clients to work for and slowly left the castle to construct other buildings.  In 1947 Randoph left the castle and Julia never returned to work on it.  The castle remained incomplete. 

After a successful career in architecture as a woman amongst men; Julia Morgan retired in the 1950's, then died in 1957. 

Sources:

http://www.usdreams.com/Morgan22.html

http://www.hearstcastle.com/history/julia_morgan.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Morgan

My Impression of Fairytale

My Impression of Fairytale

I am not in IAD major, so it is hard to answer in the practical manner, but I have some house and building that want to use as a design for the story book.

First one is the Green Gables House. The original is at the Prince Edward Island, East Coast Canada. It is popular site for the best-selling book of Anna of Green Gables. It is also popular for Japanese tourist, from its Japanese anime series, Akage no An, (“Red-Haired Anne”) showed in 1979. So, first thing I heard the word, “story house”, I think of this place.

Actually, Japanese import housing company, Maples Homes, build the Green Gabled house already, but just assuming that I build this style in San Francisco, I would change more to cream color (Naples Yellow) wall and enhance the wall (maybe use concrete or stucco inside of the wooden panels for securing from earthquake. The size would be smaller too to fit in one of the land of the housing area in San Francisco. It could be little shorter with the width than the original.

Second choice is a Cinderella Castle in Tokyo Disneyland at the Tokyo Disney Resort. The Cinderella Castle was originally a carbon copy of the Magic Kingdom in Florida, but

“….however from 1986-2006, "Cinderella's Mystery Castle Tour" was a popular attraction featured within the castle. In June 2006, the castle was repainted, to differentiate it from Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom. The castle now has gold trimmings, the rooftops have been painted a different shade of blue, and the white stone of the turrets now has a tan/dirty-pink color.” (wikipedia, Cinderella Castle)

Actually, I like the original Cinderella Castle that I saw when I used to go there. I think the way it is now look more childish. (Off course it is ok to be childish at the Disneyland, but just with my taste, I prefer old one better.) The reason why I pick this building, because I like Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany, and the Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle (in Anaheim, Disneyland) and Cinderella castle was its inspiration. The foundation stone of the building was laid in 1869 designed by Christian Jank. It was stood on top of the rocky hill. Now it is one of the world heritage sites. People cannot go in, but there is a viewpoint for tourist can see as close as they can get. Without noticing that this is so important building around the world, I used to do the jigsaw puzzle of this German castle, and I still have it at the entrance of my house.

The Neuschwanstein Castle is too large for the Storybook style and too gorgeous for ordinary people’s house if it is shrunk with the size from the Cinderella Castle or Sleeping Beauty Castle, it would be cute looking story house. Off course, for the copy right of the Disney, I need to make little different. Again, I like the original more simple, less colorful German castle, so I would make use of the Neuschwanstein Castle, but maybe use red brick or redwood for the material, if I would build it in San Francisco.

At last, as mentioned the Straw Bale House, straw bale house is a house that is built with a stack of the straw with adobe clay or mad on top for the wall, and dry and just painted on top. It is organic friendly, so no chemical odor wall that is caused with many people who has skin sensitive sickness. Also, it is eco-friendly, to save from using metal or concrete wall. Actually, there is nothing new for the concept for some African tribe houses, or even ancient house in Japan. But, the way putting colorful paint, it would look more artistic and more doll house-like little hut. I like the idea of using bottom of the glass bottle to put on the wall, so that the light coming though in the house. I have seen the house in Santa Fe, New Mexico. As I was looking at Japan Straw Bale Association website, and the book on the Straw Bale House, I like the idea that people from the community, or friends or the eco-conscious group come together and build one house.