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=Japanese architecture from 1900s-2008(Meiji period- Modern)=

toc =__Japanese architecture from 1900s-2008(Meiji period- Modern)__=

= = //**Here are the main steps to start building a Japanese house and a little brief history on Japanese architecture**//

The architects have to think of these things before they start building a japanese house:
 * patterns
 * design
 * surface
 * scale
 * proportion
 * hierarchy

Meiji Period was from 1868 through 1912, and it started on October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The period before it was the Edo period ruled by Tokugawa Yoshinobu. The Meiji period was known as the time that Japan was starting its modernization and when it rose to world power status. This era's name means "Period of the Enlightened Rule". After the ruler during the Meiji Period died, Emperor Taisho took the throne and started the Taisho period.

1. What are some famous structures of Japanese architecture?
= = The painted wooden **Torii,** or Gateway, at Miyajima Island, Japan, is located at the tidal flats opposite of the Itsukushima Shrine. Built in the traditional Shinto style, it has two columns supporting a concave crosspiece on top, the gate serves to welcome the spirits of the dead as they come from across the Inland Sea. Other famous Japanese buildings include //Himeji Castle// (17th century) and the Buddhist temples of //Horyuji// (7th century) and //Todaiji// (8th century) at Nara, and //Phoenix Hall// (11th century) at Uji near Kyoto.

The Himeji Castle is a famous japanese castle complex that has 82 wooden buildings around its complex. The castle was built during the Muromacho period. The " White Heron Castle" was built in 1331 because of war purposes.The Himeji castle had many defensive elements. One of its most important defensive elements, and probably its most famous, is the confusing maze of paths leading to the main room. The gates and outer walls of the complex are organized because if an army would come marching in a spiral pattern around the castle on their way into the main room, they would face many dead ends. This allowed the intruders to be watched and fired upon from the main room during their entire approach. However, Himeji was never attacked in this manner, and so the system remains untested.

1. **Shigeru Ban** Shigeru Ban was born in 1957 in the very architectural Tokyo, Japan. He is known internationally for his innovative work with recycled cardboard paper tubes used to quickly give homes to disaster victims. Shigeru Ban was the winner in 2005 at age 48 of the 40th annual Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He was interviewed by "Time Magazine" in their projection of 21st century innovators in the field of architecture and design.

2. **Ando Tadao** Ando tadao is known for the creative use of light and the natural forms of landscape instead of conforming it to the constructed space of building. He was born in Osaka, Japan in 1941. He is the third Japanese architect to be selected for his profession's highest honor which carries $100,000 grant.

3. **Jun Aoki** He graduated from tokyo university he first worked at Arata Isozaki & Associates before his own established business in 1991. His business included public architecture, home architecture, and interior design. His most recent project, Fukushima Lagoon Museum in 1997 won the Architectural Institute of Japan Annual Award. Now, he has his own museum the Aomori Museum of Art and Architecture in Tokyo, Japan which opened in 2006. He just recently made Furoshiko. Furishiko is a Japanese traditional wrapping cloth. It has square shaped with various printed patterns. Furoshiko is used for the interior design of the Japanese houses that Aoki Jun designs.

4. **Takeda Ayasaburo** Takeda Ayasaburo was a Japanese Rangaku scholar and the architect of the fortress of Goryokaku in Hokkaido,Japan. He was born in Ozu, Ehime,Japan in 1827. He built the Goryokaku and the Benten Daiba during 1854 and 1866.

5.**Furuichi Kohi**

He was a civil engineer, the president of Koka Daigaku, the present college of engineering of the Tokyo University. He was born in 1854 during the Edo period and he designed the Naimusho Doboku-kyoko Yatoi in Tokyo, Japan.

3.What kind of materials did they use for the Japanese houses?
Nearly all traditional Japanese building materials were if organic origin. This is because of the temperate, humid climate, over 90% of the ancient Japanese Islands
 * The wood for traditional materials for a Japanese house came from trees like cedar, pine, cypress, and fir.
 * Trees like oak and chestnut were used for furniture and for fixing holes in the house

4.What are the differences between a Japanese and American or European house?
Two big differences with Western homes are that shoes are not worn inside the house and that at least one room tends to be designed in the Japanese style with a tatami floor. Shoes are taken off when entering a house to keep the floor clean. The genkan, or entrance, serves as a place for removing, storing, and putting on shoes. People tend to put on slippers for indoor use as soon as they have taken off their shoes.

Tatami are mats made of a thick base of straw and have been used in Japanese homes since about 600 years ago. A single tatami usually measures 1.91 by 0.95 meters, and room sizes are often measured in terms of the number of tatami mats. A tatami floor is cool in the summer and warm in the winter, and remains fresher than carpet during Japan's humid months.


 * Construction differences:**

- Japanese houses don't have cellars or basements. It is against the law. No wine cellar, no extra place to store food, and other junk..... but since they don't normally have a central heating system, they don't need a boiler.

- Many new Japanese houses have flat roofs with a terrace on the top. This is a useful gain of space -they use it to dry the laundry. Lucky for them that rains less in Tokyo and other areas in Japan than anywhere in Northern Europe and America!

- Walls are very thin (about 10cm) and hollow. It's almsot possible to destroy them with a kick or a small hammer. That is because of earthquakes and gives a feeling of "paper house" to the habitations.

- European houses don't usually have air conditioning, because summers aren't hot enough in the North and are very dry in the South, so that the shade and thick walls are enough to keep it cool inside. All Japanese houses have air conditioning in almost every room, because it would be unbearable during the muggy, hot, and humid summer without it.

- Windows and doors normally open by sliding, especially in slightly older (can't be very old in Japan) or traditional buildings. Window frames don't have partation (parting) in the the middle.

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They pack together big stones, and dried soil/earth and compress it together in a machine

6.What kind of land was the best kind to build a house on?
A Kanto Plain, is a low land that spreads from the Alps to the Pacific Ocean is the best kind of land to build a Japanese house on

7.What are the steps that a Japanese architect needs to follow to build a Japanese house?
The architects have to think of these things before they start building a japanese house:
 * patterns
 * design
 * surface
 * scale
 * proportion
 * hierarchy

here is a little floor plan of a Japnese house:

Traditional Japanese houses are built and kept upright by standing wooden columns on top of a flat foundation made up of packed earth(soil) and rocks. The wooden beams are hollow, yet they still support the weight of the whole house because the house is mostly made up of something surprisingly light-- paper (like origami).

9.Why do the Japanese architects design small and slender houses?
Japanese architects design small and slender houses because of Japan's climate. Japan has long,hot,and humid summers. The ceiling of a Japanese house is somewhat raised so air can move beneath it and circulate. They built Japanese houses with wood to prevent damage from earthquakes.

10. How do they balance big roofs on those small Japanese houses?
The beams in the roof are tied together with straw ropes. They provide both strength and flexibility when there are heavy snow loads ,strong winds or earthquakes. The main entrance is usually on the left side rather then the gable end (right side of the house). Roof rafters projecting through the gable end support the large overhang. The roofs usually slope at around 60 degrees .The roof thatch can be up to 1 meter thick.

=Japanese architecture page 2 = = = More information for DATSS page

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