House #8
Comments: 3
“House Week” finished, oh, about 3 weeks ago, but I’ll try to keep posting entries in what I hope will be an occasional series.
I don’t know exactly what it is about this house that I like. There’s nothing terribly compelling to recommend it, but it just seems to work where a lot of new buildings don’t. The tin shed look always does something for me (Glenn Murcutt and Peter Stutchbury have been great proponents of this in Australia), and the way the susuki (Japanese pampas) breaks up the line of the balcony is a nice touch.
Curved roofs are usually hit-or-miss affairs, and again there’s nothing necessarily great about this one. Here it is sticking up above my house (on the left). The windows look a bit stingy if you think about it, and yet the the whole things isn’t unpleasant to look at and actually sits well among the neighbouring houses.
The architect, Mrs. Wada (I don’t know her first name), lives immediately behind this house. Perhaps all architects should have to live immediately behind or next to or across from their work; seems to instill a certain care.
The second floor looking north-west. I love the thrown-together effect of the jutting angles, how it looks like rooms have been added as afterthoughts, or have been enlarged when previously unconsidered requirements were remembered. It’s a clever way to soften what could have been too hard a design. This effect is evident on the first floor, too, where the tin gives way to the glass wall of a room that looks like it’s been inserted into the side of the main building, and through which sliding shoji open onto a tatami room.
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Posted to Architecture • 2002.11.23 (Sat) • 20:18
Comments
Posted by Chris 2002.11.24, 11:29
I think as much as anything the quality of your photography is what makes the building so appealing for us web readers.
Good work - I look forward to further updates on the subject. Maybe you could use your camera to make my Leo Palace-esque apartment appear welcoming and beautiful.
Posted by jh 2002.11.24, 14:09
Well, don’t tell anyone, but you’d be surprised how even a cheap polarising filter can turn you into a better photographer! It’s worked wonders for me.
Glad you’re enjoying the shots, though. The series started out as a look at my neighbourhood, but I think I’ll start keeping an eye out further afield from now on.
Posted by Tokyot 2006.12.03, 20:56
Very interesting series of photographs. Older Japanese wooden houses are disappearing but there are still a variety of well preserved ones to be found. After visiting Nezu (Tokyo) today, I would recommend anyone with interest should go. There are a variety of 80-100+ year old buildings that survived the fire bombing in Tokyo during WW2. The most impressive and rare I saw was a four story apartment building made totally of wood that looked about 100 years old. After asking around the neighborhood, I found it to be just be a “standard” apartment building that local people in the area rent. I’ll post some photos I took today soon.
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