Universal Technology and Local Customs

Critical Regionalism seeks to incorporate an opposing approach to design which mediates between universal technology and local customs of architecture. The problematic nature of the relationship between industrialization and traditional cultures and techniques arises when the economy seeks to commercialize our connection to nature.¹ Sacrificed in a dense urban and suburban fabric, Tadao Ando seeks to revitalise the connection between nature and building characteristic of Japanese architecture through the sensory experience.

Ando incorporates this through adopting the open vocabulary of Modernism in the enclosed area of regional differentiation, attempting to conserve and express the culture’s customs, sensibilities and social traditions.² Emphasis is placed upon tectonic form and tactile sensations of illumination, topography, ambience and climate instead of scenography and focusing just upon visuals.³

In his small courtyard houses, Ando uses concrete for its homogeneous surface and how light affects the surface rather than focusing upon the material’s weight. This spatial limpidity is created through the sense of walls becoming abstract and negated as these surfaces become comprehensible through the sunlight.⁴ The tactile and ambient nature of the architecture thus succeeds in transcending the initial perception of its solid geometry. In Koshino House (1980-1984), whilst the exterior is a blank concrete walled façade, the interior corridor is punctuated by narrow openings exposing and expressing the play of light and shadow.

Material selections and fundamental details, enforced by local economies, are geographically diversified through the regional variation of the economic-technological tide.⁵ Recognising the disjointed way of life of Japan in the post war period, Ando’s interplay of light, material, space and detail is reminiscent of traditional Japanese farmhouses (minka) where distinct contrasts are made between light and shadow through the strategically placed clerestories.⁶ Critical regionalism initiates a return to sensory experience and perception in a century dominated by media and information.⁷

^Footnotes

1. Alan Colquhoun “Critique of Regionalism,” in Vincent Canizaro, ed., Architectural Regionalism: Collected Writings on Place, Identity, Modernity and Tradition (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007), 145.

2. Tadao Ando, “From Self Enclosed Modern Architecture Towards Universality,” Japan Architect, 301

May 1962, 8-12.

3. Kenneth Frampton, Modern Architecture (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2007), 327.

4. Ibid, 324.

5. Richard J. Neutra, “Regionalism in Architecture”in Vincent Canizaro, ed., Architectural Regionalism: Collected Writings on Place, Identity, Modernity and Tradition (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007), 278.

6. Xianghua Wu, Concrete Resistance: Ando in the context of critical regionalism,48-341: History of Architectural Theory, May 10 2006, pg 7

7. Frampton, Modern Architecture, 327. 

Image Credits

1. General View (Koshino House), Gonzalo Perez. 2011, photograph. Available: Archdaily, http://www.archdaily.com/161522/ad-classics-koshinohouse-tadao-ando/ (accessed October 11, 2013).

2. Corridor (Koshino House), Gonzalo Perez. 2011, photograph. Available: Archdaily, http://www.archdaily.com/161522/ad-classics-koshino-housetadao-ando/ (accessed October 11, 2013).

3. Row House, Unknown. 2013, photograph. Available: ArchiTravel, http://www.architravel.com/architravel/building/row-house-azuma-house/ (accessed October 11, 2013).