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House Week #7: Textures & Fabric

Comments: 4

Engel refers to “fabric” as any of the materials used to build houses. In Japan these fabrics are traditionally wood, stone, clay, straw, paper, bamboo and glass. I can’t show you all of those today unfortunately, and we need to limit ourselves to exterior fabrics (shoji, the ‘paper windows’ you’re no doubt familiar with, are almost always better experienced from inside) but nonetheless here a few shots from around the heighbourhood.

An old house tucked away behind its newer replacement. The white blob above the door is a cat, by the way. Behind the cat you can see how the plaster is weathering: light and dry where it gets occasional sun and dark and mouldy up under the eaves where it can’t dry out so much. Japan is a wet country, the fourth wettest in the world I think, and the climate is tough on wooden buildings.

Not a special house by any means, but it’s home! A shot of my house showing the south wall of the front room where I have my study. There used to be a similar house right next door (the houses shared half a block each) but it burned down when Mrs. K accidentally plugged in a portable electric cooking range that she’d left hanging element-side to the wall. We were in Australia at the time but friends and neighbours who saw the blaze said it took no more than 30 minutes for the house to burn to ashes. Our two houses were separated by no more than 14 inches of space, so it’s a miracle and a testament to the dogged brilliance of Japanese firefighters that we didn’t lose ours as well. No one was injured.

With the house next door gone my study gets a lot more sun than it used to (it has windows on 3 sides but the south was mostly hidden behind the Ks’ place before), hence the bamboo blinds. I’d gladly give up the extra sun if we could have the K family back: they were wonderful people and we miss them (they moved out of the nighbourhood after the fire – I gather it’s not the done thing to do to stick around after such occurences, accidents or not).

This small block of flats just around the corner is finished off in a kind of orange plaster. This photo doesn’t do it justice but it’s a beautiful sight when the sun’s on it. Salmon pink it ain’t.

And finally, where would we be without the timeless combination of wood and white plaster? The essence of simplicity, this combination never ceases to please. The tops of walls are often finished off with plaster both externally and internally, and the simple white of the plaster highlights the natural colours and textures of wood so well.

The formal regularity of the architecture and limited palette of materials creates infinite opportunities for invention and variations on themes. The Japanese figured out a long time ago how to do more with less and to satisfy the eye and heart to a degree out of all proportion to the means.

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Posted to Architecture • 2002.11.10 (Sun) • 14:31

Comments

Posted by M Sinclair Stevens 2002.11.11, 01:11

Glad to see the shot of your house included with these. I’m a kinesthetic learner, so texture impresses me more than color or form. And the scents of an old Japanese house—wood and hay and wet stone smells. So different than the smells of sheetrock and formaldehyde-laden wall-to-wall carpeting.

I put up some textures of my own.

By the by…are you familiar with Kyoto Mitate International?

Posted by red 2002.11.11, 04:47