Wright Chat

I enjoy studying these compact Japanese designs. They require a delicate balance to be struck between the need for light and spaciousness, and the need for privacy owing to their confined sites. Though used sparingly by Aratani, open riser stairs seem to be a common element in these houses as they allow light to pass through, and the ability to visually "borrow" space.

The following is a link to another Japanese house that was published in Record Houses in 2005, that still sticks in my mind 6 years later:

http://archrecord.construction.com/proj ... 4RHi-1.asp

By careful manipulation of the section, and the "blind-esque" quality of the slatted concrete, the balance noted above seems to work.

Although my understanding of architecture is fairly broad and informs my pschological expectation of functional architecture, I can admire visually the concise minimalism of step form without rail...but I cannot use them. The visceral sense (and sad reality) of insecurity is overpowering. My experience says the absence of risers fosters the fear factor as much as the missing hand rail.

I have seen a few times the welded steel stairs that appears as an accordian plane and while there never seemed to be a rail and they, too, are open into space, I think I could walk them... but only slowly and very near the wall. The feeling of danger is so strong that, I suspect, I could not ask some to climb these stairs.

But just as I write this I had a thought that as a child I might combat my fear for the fun of siting on the outward edge of one of those cantilevered steps dangling my legs at adults below. I know what those adults would be thinking!


The borrowed space under a stair is important though. Michael and I, before we purchased this single floor house, thought that the chinese cabinet stair ideal stair, like the Frankel skyscraper cabinet, might be a model: stairs against the wall with a recessed railing and the space below in vertical cabinets/shelves of varying depths from the wall. We wondered about vibrations from walking.

Of living architects, I would place Tadao Ando near the top. I don't know if he was the one who ushered in the current minimalist trend in Japanese residential architecture, but he certainly is one of the best. The Tutanaga House is exquisite to look at, but I fear most of us here in the U S of A are too messy to keep such a place looking pristine.

GA Houses is a pricey periodical that perhaps displays more new Japanese residential architecture than any other print source. My library carries it, fortunately. There have been so many approaches to the minimalist urban house on a confined lot -- the variety of solutions to issues of privacy, light, and spacial play have been amusing and heartening. Scores of younger architects have followed Ando and Isozaki in the past couple of decades, in creating and exploring minimalist architectural form and space.

Ando is of course best known for a refined use of exposed poured concrete. Others are working in sheetrock, painted concrete, and other colorless and undefined materials. Form and space are the ingredients for these makers.

Encouraging work by architects in other Asian, equatorial, and southern lands is both minimalist and richly material in approach, with exposed wood, patinated concrete and metal, and paper and fabric finishes. Some of these works are much more reminiscent of Wright's example than are the white ghosts of Tokyo. Alberto Kalach, Studio Mumbai, and Gurjit Singh Matharoo are practices which GA House has featured in past issues, worthy of pursuit in my view.

http://www.kalach.com/casanegro07.html

http://www.studiomumbai.com/belavali_house_images.html

SDR

I wouldn't classify Isozaki as a minimalist. He's more in the tradition of Kenzo Tange (1913-2005), an underrated architect. Unfortunately, the only Tange building I've seen is the addition to the Minneapolis Institute of Art (1974), which is not his best. Isozaki's MoCA is not objectionable to look at from the street, but it's a very poorly planned building that could have benefited from a touch of minimalism. I would call Isozaki a poor man's Tange.

Thanks, Roderick -- quite right: I shouldn't have included Isozaki among the minimalists. There are many others to take his place, there !


In looking for images of early Tange work -- the Kurashiki Town Hall, in particular -- I came across an interesting collection of stuff:

http://www.gyte.edu.tr/hebe/AblDrive/76 ... sonras.pdf

SDR