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Perspectives On 20th Century Architecture: Japan: Three Generations Of Avant-garde Architects - The Six Greatest Japanese Avant-Garde Architects Of Japan's Second Golden Age Of Architecture During The Latter Half Of The 20th Century -- Kazuo Shinohara, Itsuko Hasegawa, Toyo Ito, Fumihiko Maki, Arata Isozaki and Tadao Ando -- As Well As Metabolism, The Post-War Japanese Biomimetic Architectural Movement -- All Presented In The Highest DVD Quality MPG Video Format Of 9.1 MBPS As An Archival Quality All Regions Format DVD, MP4 Video Download Or USB Flash Drive! (Color, 1988, 60 Minutes.)
Japanese Architecture (Japanese: Nihon Kenchiku) has been typified by wooden structures, elevated slightly off the ground, with tiled or thatched roofs. Sliding doors (fusuma) and other traditional partitions were used in place of walls, allowing the internal configuration of a space to be customized for different occasions. People usually sat on cushions or otherwise on the floor, traditionally; chairs and high tables were not widely used until the 20th century. Since the 19th century, however, Japan has incorporated much of Western, modern, and post-modern architecture into construction and design, and is today a leader in cutting-edge architectural design and technology. The earliest Japanese architecture was seen in prehistoric times in simple pit-houses and stores adapted to the needs of a hunter-gatherer population. Influence from Han dynasty China via Korea saw the introduction of more complex grain stores and ceremonial burial chambers. The introduction of Buddhism in Japan during the sixth century was a catalyst for large-scale temple building using complicated techniques in wood. Influence from the Chinese Sui and Tang dynasties led to the foundation of the first permanent capital in Nara. Its checkerboard street layout used the Chinese capital of Chang'an as a template for its design. In 894 during the Heian period (794-1185), Japan abolished kentoshi (Japanese missions to Tang China) and began to distance itself from Chinese culture, and a culture called Kokufu bunka (lit., Japanese culture) which was suited to the Japanese climate and aesthetic sense flourished. The shinden-zukuri style, which was the architectural style of the residences of nobles in this period, showed the distinct uniqueness of Japanese architecture and permanently determined the characteristics of later Japanese architecture. Its features are an open structure with few walls that can be opened and closed with doors, shitomi and sudare, a structure in which shoes are taken off to enter the house on stilts, and sitting or sleeping directly on tatami mats without using chairs and beds. As the samurai class gained power in the Kamakura period (1185-1333), the shinden-zukuri style changed, and in the Muromachi period (1333-1573), the shoin-zukuri style appeared. This style had a lasting influence on later Japanese architectural styles and became the basis of modern Japanese houses. Its characteristics were that sliding doors called fusuma and paper windows called shoji were fully adopted, and tatami mats were laid all over the room. The introduction of the tea ceremony emphasised simplicity and modest design as a counterpoint to the excesses of the aristocracy. In the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568-1600), sukiya-zukuri style villas appeared under the influence of a tea house called chashitsu. At first it was an architectural style for the villas of daimyo (Japanese feudal lords) and court nobles, but in the Edo period (1683-1807) it was applied to ryotei (Japanese-style restaurants) and chashitsu, and later it was also applied to residences. During the Meiji Restoration of 1869 the history of Japanese architecture was radically changed by two important events. The first was the Kami and Buddhas Separation Act of 1868, which formally separated Buddhism from Shinto and Buddhist temples from Shinto shrines, breaking an association between the two which had lasted well over a thousand years. Secondly, it was then that Japan underwent a period of intense Westernization in order to compete with other developed countries. Initially, architects and styles from abroad were imported to Japan, but gradually the country taught its own architects and began to express its own style. Architects returning from study with Western architects introduced the International Style of modernism into Japan. However, it was not until after the Second World War that Japanese architects made an impression on the international scene, firstly with the work of architects like Kenzo Tange and then with theoretical movements, like Metabolism.
Metabolism (Japanese: Metaborizumu, Ahinchintaisha) was a post-war Japanese biomimetic architectural movement that fused ideas about architectural megastructures with those of organic biological growth. It had its first international exposure during CIAM's 1959 meeting and its ideas were tentatively tested by students from Kenzo Tange's MIT studio. During the preparation for the 1960 Tokyo World Design Conference a group of young architects and designers, including Kiyonori Kikutake, Kisho Kurokawa and Fumihiko Maki prepared the publication of the Metabolism manifesto. They were influenced by a wide variety of sources including Marxist theories and biological processes. Their manifesto was a series of four essays entitled: Ocean City, Space City, Towards Group Form, and Material and Man, and it also included designs for vast cities that floated on the oceans and plug-in capsule towers that could incorporate organic growth. Although the World Design Conference gave the Metabolists exposure on the international stage, their ideas remained largely theoretical. Some smaller, individual buildings that employed the principles of Metabolism were built and these included Tange's Yamanashi Press and Broadcaster Centre and Kurokawa's Nakagin Capsule Tower. The greatest concentration of their work was to be found at the 1970 World Exposition in Osaka where Tange was responsible for master planning the whole site whilst Kikutake and Kurokawa designed pavilions. After the 1973 Oil Crisis, the Metabolists turned their attention away from Japan and toward Africa and the Middle East.
Biomimetic Architecture is a branch of the new science of biomimicry defined and popularized by Janine Benyus in her 1997 book (Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature). Biomimicry (bios - life and mimesis - imitate) refers to innovations inspired by nature as one which studies nature and then imitates or takes inspiration from its designs and processes to solve human problems. The book suggests looking at nature as a Model, Measure, and Mentor", suggesting that the main aim of biomimicry is sustainability. Living beings have adapted to a constantly changing environment during evolution through mutation, recombination, and selection. The core idea of the biomimetic philosophy is that nature's inhabitants including animals, plants, and microbes have the most experience in solving problems and have already found the most appropriate ways to last on planet Earth. Similarly, biomimetic architecture seeks solutions for building sustainability present in nature, not only by replicating their natural forms, but also by understanding the rules governing those forms. The 21st century has seen a ubiquitous waste of energy due to inefficient building designs, in addition to the over-utilization of energy during the operational phase of its life cycle. In parallel, recent advancements in fabrication techniques, computational imaging, and simulation tools have opened up new possibilities to mimic nature across different architectural scales. As a result, there has been a rapid growth in devising innovative design approaches and solutions to counter energy problems. Biomimetic architecture is one of these multi-disciplinary approaches to sustainable design that follows a set of principles rather than stylistic codes, going beyond using nature as inspiration for the aesthetic components of built form, but instead seeking to use nature to solve problems of the building's functioning and saving energy.