Wabi Sabi And Tadao Ando

Wabi Sabi And Tadao AndoWe commode easily now conceive of a time when there leave alone be only peerless polish and one civilization on the entire surface of the earth. I dont believe this will happen, because there be contradictory tendencies always at get going on the one hand towards homogenization and on the other towards new distinctions.In the 1970s and 80s, architecture in Japan was developed as a quick imitation of nigh indistinct international style or much worse disneyfication of Nipponese cities littered with out-of-place, or downright quirky, architecture. Attempts to be yeasty were easily blurred by sublimated ideas from pre-WWII period, as Nipponese architects are lost in translating Western aesthetic social classs for a Japanese public. Likewise attempts to be impostal remains most often restricted to the production of experimental skyscrapers with cut-outs and occasional pagoda roofs (note need to find examples, images). M whatsoever Japanese architect s of that period struggle to plant an individuality for themselves in an increasingly homogeneous world (Isozaki, 2011 35)Asahi Beer Building, Asakusa district, Tokyo, by renown product designer Phillip Strack, 1989.The same struggle is evident at the beginning of Tadao Andos go as he seeks to reconcile aspects of forward-looking construction with aspects of Japanese tradition. His travels to the West in his late 20s, taught him extensively on the precedents of red-brick masters such(prenominal) as Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and Louis Kahn (Dal Co, 1997).Yet, remarkably, Ando has neer been described as a neo-Corbusian, a neo-Miesian, or a neo-Kahnian. His concrete surfaces save textures as smooth and delicate as fine Japanese craftwork. His root words are spare and clean. By these means, Andos architecture embraces a contemplative, ascetic realm of stillness and abstraction. His works embodies a rare mastery of materials and lessen that seeks to reconnect mankind with nature, with a monastic sense of plainness. Kenneth Frampton in his essay Tadaos Andos hypercritical Modernism (Frampton, 1984) tho celebrates Tadao Ando as a critical regionalist.So, how did Ando overcome his struggle for an identity?To answer this question, this speaking begins with a look back into Japanese history. In the region of Kansai during the 16th century, the warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his protg, tea master Sen No Rikyu, laid the bag for the discipline of wabi-sabi a strict adherence to the virtues of simplicity, poverty and modesty, in direct resistance to the unrefined pretention of wealth. It also reflects the dissatisfaction with institutional power and resistance to tyranny. Osaka, Kansais regional capital, is Tadao Andos indigene city. Thus, by birth and inclination, it is no coincidence that he belongs to wabi-sabi aesthetic which is still alive today, as do many of his clients.This dissertation therefore argues, for the first time, that the implicit i n(p) key to lowstanding Andos capacity for abstraction must be found in wabi-sabi aesthetics. This line of credit may best be illustrated by a equality of his work with that of Sen no Rikyu (1522-91), one of the greatest of all tea Lords Supper masters, and an outstanding architect of tea notice pavilions.This dissertation will then provided discuss the role of wabi-sabi in making Ando a critical regionalist. By briefly exploring the design of critical regionalism , its greatness in contemporary architecture discourses and its criticism, the dissertation shall further reflect upon how Critical Regionalism functions within Japanese culture, in which its architectural past is often more of abstraction rather than physical.Wabi-sabi A ContextThe Japanese aesthetic tradition, like any other cultural tradition, encompasses diverse tastes and arts. They range from the ordinariness of Noh theatre to the lavishness of Kabuki theatre, the severity of monochrome brush ink paintings t o the opulence of gold-gilded screen paintings, and the primary rusticity of tea huts to the august majesty of castles.Among the variety of aesthetic pursuits, one theme stands out for being somewhat unconventional. It is a jubilancy of qualities commonly regarded as falling short of, or deteriorating from the optimal condition of the object (De Mente, 2006). While such works may appear somewhat unmingled and rough, at the same time they impart a sense of elegance and tranquillity, a kind of unsophisticated sophistication, like the moon obscured by clouds. (Koren, 1994).This study will refer to this Japanese aesthetics of the imperfection and insufficiency as wabi-sabi. The discussion in this chapter will briefly review the aesthetic, social, historical, and philosophical dimensions of this Japanese aesthetic taste.Wabi and sabiWabi is derived from the verb wabu (to deteriorate) and the procedural wabishii (solitary, comfortless). The essence of wabi has been described as nonatt achment and subtle profundity (De Mente, 2006 45). The nonattachment essence of a wabi is part of the social disease School of Buddhism that teaches detachment from all material things and the ability to commence the essence of things (Koren, 1994 12). On the other hand, the original meaning of sabi is rust or patina, but it also connotes loneliness and desolation as reflected in the adjective sabishii (lonely), peculiarly with reference to old age (1994 13).Koren (1994 21) primarily suggests wabi-sabi as the most conspicuous and mark feature of what we think of as traditional Japanese beauty, comparing its splendor in Japanese aesthetics to the Greek ideals of beauty and perfection in the West.The essence of wabi aesthetic is perhqaps best captured in Sen No Ryikus words never leave alone that the way of tea is nothing more than boiling water, making tea and drinking tea. And the tea ceremony conducted in the smallest of spaces serves primarily the practice of meditation and its purpose is enlightenment.Originally, the meanings of neither wabi nor sabi were specifically related to aesthetic qualities. The development of the wabi-sabi aesthetic began in earnest during the Kamakura Period (1185-1333) coinciding with the spread of Zen Buddhism in Japan (Koren 1994 12). Zen ideas about transcending the mundane world and conventional ways of looking at things through concepts like emptiness, impermanence and renunciation inspired a kind of savvy of negative experiences such as old age, poverty and loneliness (Suzuki, 1972 42). Hermits, priests and poets leading a solitary wandering life in search of spiritual cortical potential incorporated this sense of postponement in their works and teachings. As these ideas gained momentum, people tried to resign themselves to the sufferings of life and began to see a kind of beauty in them. Expressed in artistic forms, this in turn evolved into the aesthetic appreciation of wabi-sabi (Koren, 199414).Later, the dev elopment of the tea ceremony in the 16th century marks an important step in the evolution of wabi-sabi. Sen no Rikyu, credited with establishing the tea ceremony in its current form, was also influential in establishing wabi-sabi as an aesthetic concept (Okakura, 2005 33). He extolled the use of simple, indigenous home-style tea utensils over the expensive and highly decorative tea utensils imported from China, placing objects expressing wabi-sabi at the pinnacle of aesthetic appreciation (200534).Initially, these new aesthetics could only be discovered in the humble utensils used by the common people, or in a neglected gem lantern overgrown with moss. However, as time progressed, design works were intentionally created to reflect wabi-sabi, for example, raku earthenware tea bowls or the design of the tea-house, which took on the style of a simple rural hut, with space inside for only two tatami mats (around 3.5m) (De Mente, 200645).Futhermore in art and design, two other elements that are often associated with sabi objects are asymmetry and austerity. Kakuzo Okakura (200515), the Japanese tea master, labelled this asymmetry beauty as the art of imperfection. Surprises are achieved by the unbalanced by the apparent randomness of things that allows the observer to complete the image. This stands in melodic line to the Western compulsion to symmetry and mathematical balance, leaving no surprises and nothing for the viewer to add.Also worth nothing is that in raw Japan, the definition of a wabi-sabi style of living evolves into the elimination of things which that are inessential. The tranquillity aspect of wabi dictates a look and feel that radiates an aura of calm and solace. The natural aspect of sabi results from avoiding machination of any sort. This includes making an object or area look as if it were created by nature, not by human or machine (Koren, 1994).Wabi-sabi and Tadao Andofurther writing here on Tadao Andos background and why Tadao Ando his sign ificance in Japanese architecture since the 1980sSeveral themes related to wabi-sabi can be identified in Andos works, and these will be discussed under the following distinct but interrelated headings light, overlapping spaces and materials. This study will engage the expression of these themes through the analysis of his better known works, alongside an trial of similar principles in traditional Japanese exemplars.LightThe spaces in Andos works are typified by light within darkness. Common features among Ando works are their meditative calmness and dimness. While describing Andos Church of Light in Ibaraki, Jodidio (2004) sums it up If the enclosed world is a microcosm, the shaft of sunlight penetrating it is a ray of take to rendered vivid by the enclosure and the surrounding darkness.On the other hand, the fragile beauty of shadows that marked the Japanese cultural identity, as were praised by novelist Junichiro Tanizaki (1977), are use by Ando to infuse his buildings with a n uncanny mood which enrich the void with darkness. In Andos Shiba Ryotaro Memorial Museum in Higashiosaka, visitors experience a space saturated with a strained darkness, yet make significant by the sudden burst of light in the south-west elevation.Spatial EnclosureThough set in an urban environment, in true spirit of wabi-sabi, Andos buildings strive for the mood of a good deal retreat. Andos buildings are often described as an enclosed world, shut off from the outdoor environment (Jodidio 200410). It shuts out the exterior world but introduces nature, in symbolic form. The symbolic representation of nature is a major expression of wabi-sabi aesthetic, and is prevalent in all Japanese art. superstar outstanding example is the Zen rock gardens of the Ryoan-ji, a 13th century Buddhist temple in Kyoto, where stones and white sandpaper are used to depict islands and the sea.In Andos Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, lift Kobe, visitors are greeted with a deceptively closed, minim alist volume of raw concrete. Dal Co (1997125) describes the form of the museum as one which is radically new, yet there is still the old feeling of seclusion, of an architecture that creates another world remote from the e very(prenominal)day. He further describes the boilers suit spatial structure is as closed to the outside yet sacrifice within, the former tempered by a few slits and the latter by layer planes (1997125). One can argue that this is suggestive of the wabi-sabi blast in older, traditional Japanese architecture, where buildings are enclosed with a simple mud wall and made inwardly porous by layered screens.Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, outside KobeThus, spaces which overlap and figuratively fold in on each other add attainment and richness to the composition and stimulate excitement and expectation in the person experiencing the space. The effect is achievable through the approach to the building. For example, the approach to a tea ceremony pavilion often lea ds through a garden space called a roji. This is exemplified in tea-ceremony huts in Kyotos Katsura Imperial Villa, one of Japans best known architectural heritage. In the course of traversing this garden, the visitor must pass through several gates, usually intentional delicately and minimally, before finally reaching the pavilion where the tea ceremony will be performed. Detours are deliberately included in the stepping-stone notchway to generate similar anticipation and excitement. The same kind of indirect approach is characteristic of Andos buildings.MaterialsTraditional Japanese house architecture often employs unfinished logs, simply split bamboo, and walls made of clay with an admixture of chopped straw, as in Katsuras tea-ceremony hut. One can notice that materials were deliberately used without finishes for the sake of creating an aesthetically pure, ideal world of sobriety, calm and refined rusticity (Okakura, 2005). One can conclude that designers of tea ceremony archi tecture carefully selected only those materials conducive to production of a microcosm compatible with the aesthetics of wabi.Designers of such architecture tend to use natural materials, to have them look as natural as possible, and to employ muted -almost monochrome colour schemes. One could argue that Andos works severely limits the range of interior colours. In Andos buildings one could observe almost entirely unfinished concrete with the exception of floors and furnishings, which are of natural materials. Window sashes, which, though steel, are always painted gray, never bright self-assertive colours. This approach used both by designers of tea ceremony buildings and by Ando, is determined by a concern for the materials themselves and for spatial composition (Baek, 2008).Furthermore, in the spaces in Andos works, one can observe the same peaceful, almost desolate spirit of wabi-sabi that informs the design of a teahouse or lonely mountain temple. Apart from warm touches of woo den flooring and nature beyond, every surface of concrete, steel or mass presents a chilly monotonous grey. These black-and-white tonalities are distinctly Japanese, apparent in traditional buildings in silvery roof tiles, grey-weathered boards, neutral plaster and white paper screens.Tadao Andos Critical ModernismThis chapter of the dissertation begins with a brief overview of critical regionalism, its importance in contemporary architecture discourse in Japan, and the criticisms against. Building on the discussion of wabi-sabi in chapters before, the chapter further discusses the role of wabi-sabi in making Ando a critical regionalist.Critical regionalism and JapanIn history, regionalism is a manifested concept since the times of the Romans. Regional variations has been extensively discussed in Vitruvius treaties De Architectura (Ten Books on Architecture). The Romantics further propounded beautiful regionalism during the 19th and early 20th century. (Nesbitt 1996 486)Critical reg ionalism, on the other hand, was first coined as an architectural concept in the early 1980s in essays by Alexander Tzonis, Liane Lefaivre and, subsequently, Kenneth Frampton.Tadao Andos works are situated within this backdrop of a newly defined focus on regionalism. This new focus is seen as a reaction to the authority of modernism and the imitating scenography of postmodernism, both of which were thought to have failed to address the human condition in their extreme stances towards historicism.The core question which arises is how to become modern and to return to sources?. In their 1981 article The Grid and the Pathway, Tzonis and Lefaivre hypothesise critical regionalism as the solution. In the context of architecture in Greece, they defined the term critical regionalism as the third and latest type of regionalism, following the English picturesque of nationalist regionalism, and the Neoclassical historicist regionalism. They further argued that modern architecture is impersona l and monolithic, destroying the humanistic qualities in architectural expression which would be reinstated by a new form of regionalism. (Tzonis Lefaivre, 1981)Frampton later followed their lead in propounding critical regionalism. In his 1983 seminal essay Towards a Critical Regionalism, he embeds the concept with a higher sense of urgency and highlights its critical nature against placeless monotony.Frampton saw critical regionalism exemplified by Jrn Utzons Bagsvaerd Church (1973-76) near Copenhagen, which represents, according to Frampton, a self-conscious synthesis of universal civilization and world culture. The combination of universal elements like the concrete outer shell of the church, with an organic and individualist interior and a roof shape reminiscent of pagodas as a reference to world culture, make, in the eyes of Frampton, this architecture simultaneously resistant and modern (Frampton, 1983 16)This resistance, one could argue, is also apparent in 1980s Japan in t he midst of an economic boom. There exists a typified reaction against universal standards, western culture homogenisation and placeless modernism, but at the same time the reaction is critical in its outlook. Likewise, one could also argue that critical regionalism in Japan is self-evaluating such that it is confrontational with not only the world but also to itself.Although the Japanese (like the Chinese) had developed doctrines relatively early that emphasised the necessity of space essence, ma, and Western functionality and aimed, at least sporadically, at a reconciliation of Chinese and Western elements in architecture, regionalism has never been established as a critical architectural movement (Isozaki, 2001 131). (note further elaboration needed)On the contrary, Peter Eisenman argued there is no tradition of resistance in Asia. Thus, he concludes, rendering architecture in Asia, in principle, conservative and accommodating. Eisenman refers to the importance attributed to crit ical thinking in late 18th century Europe developed, in particular, by Kant and Giovanni Battista Piranesi that strongly contributed to the formation of a critical consciousness among European architects. Eisenman pointed out that such tradition cannot be traced in Asia. (Eisenman, 1995) (note further elaboration needed)Tadao Ando a wabi-sabi Critical RegionalistFrampton celebrates Tadao Ando as a critical regionalist. This is most evident in his essay Tadaos Andos Critical Modernism (Frampton, 1984) in which Frampton uses the label to discuss Andos architectureOne of Framptons criteria for critical regionalism is a direct dialectical relation with nature, a talks with the environment that Andos architecture embodies in the articulation of structure through the changing impact of terrain. This is exemplified in Andos Chikatsu-Asuka Museum outside Osaka. The work is characterised by the valley which surrounds the site. Ando decisively situated the museum on the severe slopes to mak e it a quiet building standing quietly in nature (Ando, 1989a 46). In contrast to the modernist clean slate approach of levelling the site, Andos approach is in true adherence to the spirit of wabi-sabi of preserving the tectonic quality of the nature. In Chikatsu-Asuka, the work is tactile, another component of Framptons (198328) definition which resides in the fact that (the building) can only be decoded in terms of experience itself. Indeed, Ando professes that a building exists to be seen and experienced and not to be talked about (eds. Knabe Noennig, 1999 118).It could also be argued that, in abidance to the tenets of wabi-sabi, Ando is seeking to tackle the tactile range of human perception. This romanticised emotion of wabi-sabi can be seen in the way Ando describes his buildings and context, which he refers to as cruel urban surroundings (Ando, 199712). As discussed earlier, within his territorial walls and spatial enclosure, Ando is determined to establish a natural, Zen-l ike relationship between the person, material and natural phenomena. His works are designed to be experienced in body and spirit. (eds. Knabe Noennig, 1999 118)At the same time, Ando often speaks of the spirit and emotional contents which he has translated from the Japanese vernacular and the richness of the tradition of sukiya1 and minka2 which is lost in urban chaos and economic growth (Ando, 1982). In fact, his architecture is largely influenced by the nostalgia of his childhood memoriesWe all have had certain experiences in our childhood that have stayed with us for our entire lives. The house that I grew up in was very important to me It is very long, and when you come in from the street you walk through a corridor and then into a small courtyard and then another long space that takes you deeper into the house. The courtyard is very important because the house is very long and the amount of light is very limited. Light is very precious Living in a space like that, where ligh t and darkness are constantly interacting, was a critical experience for me. (Auping, 2002 22)Ando (Auping, 2002 22) speaks of himself, I value cultural treasures and would like to develop them in a creative way, revealing his, and many Japanese architects, fondness for cultural artefacts and a related lament at the loss of such an environment due to unrelenting urban development.On the other hand, the argument that posits Ando as a critical regionalist lies in this very statement by Frampton (199512), in which Ando is described as at once both an unequivocally modern architect and a figure whose values lie embedded in some archaic moment. In the same text, he further argued that Ando is committed to some other time before the machinations of progress has turned into an every present nemesis.Hence, one can conclude that Ando is critically opposed of the chaotic Japanese urban context and reproduction traditional Japanese physical elements. In his work there are none. One can hardly find the traditional open pavilion, bare timber skeleton, deeply overhanging roofs, or sliding shoji doors of spotless white paper (Jodidio, 2004 21). Nevertheless Ando has transmuted these properties into something new, grounding his architecture in an ancient culture composition freeing it of depiction.Wabi-sabi as a representation Japanese architectural identity.One could argue, like wabi-sabi itself, the notion of Japanese identity is perceived sensually rather than visually.NotesSukiya is a type of Japanese architectural style. It can be literally translated as sophisticated, cultivated experience, often a reference to delight of the elegantly performed tea-ceremony.Minka are esoteric dwellings of farmers, artisans, and merchants, constructed in traditional Japanese building styles.Illustration creditsLeonard Koren, from his book Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets Philosophers, fig. 2-3Author, fig. 1, 4-10Word count3493