"CONNECTION OF SPACE" 1.
"DIVISION OF SPACE" 2.
1. Jiko-in Shoin, The importance of traditional culture. There was a large building demand after the total destruction of the war, this caused for the import of Western concepts of Functionalism and Rationalism building to make cheap and high efficient housing. Shinohara was opposed to these building methods since he was convinced that it would eliminate the last culture that Japan had left. "The wonderful structure of the shoin of the Jikō-in, (…) is worthy of our admiration. I know nothing of equal beauty of the spatial construction of the building. To eliminate such forms would be to do away with that we have left of Japanese culture (...) The aims and concepts of modern architecture, intent on extensive transparency and flexible space, and Japanese traditional space are vastly different” - Shinohara, K.2 2. "A House is an Art" & 3. Umbrella house. The efficient, rationalistic and functionalistic building methods used by the west couldn't be considered as quality since it did not have a deep emotional relation with the residents. Shinohara notes that it is important to strive for superior beauty in the design of space since that is the only task of an architect. “I would like the houses I design to stand forever on this earth. (…) I cannot help but aspire towards eternity in trying to make houses. (...) When a space pos-
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sesses superior beauty, its right to a longer life is self evident. (...) What I do mean is that unless today’s residential design creates spaces of high aesthetic quality, our raison d’être will be diminished.” - Shinohara, K.2 He tried to make this connection through symbolic traditional design elements, as the doma, and more cryptic design theories as his 'wasteful space' theory in the umbrella house. "I thought that the expression of wasteful space would be possible in this house through the immanent feeling of the void or insufficient space." - Shinohara, K.3 4. "Connection of Space". These notions eventually developed to a theory of 'connection of space' that he used in house of white. "relating to the problem of structure supporting the emotion of space. My approach to 'symbolic space' (...) has provided me with a clue to a more general 'meaningful space'. The history of a race is deeply carved into its old, traditional heritage. The emotion of a race expresses itself in concrete designs which we can see with our own eyes." - Shinohara, K.4
I. Methematics Shinohara's designs are mostly very simple in plan, many references in geometry can be found since he was highly influenced by his first major as mathematician. “I majored in mathematics before studying architecture. Therefore, for me, thinking about mathematics is almost the same as thinking about architecture. It is like two sides of the same coin.” - Shinohara, K.5
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II. Dichotomy Shinohara’s method of plandesign developed into a theory he called ‘dichotomy’ when he was designing the House of Chigasaki. He derives this method from traditional Japanese architecture which is in this style period very important to him. “I insisted on using the same kind of simple organization within a rectangular outline that I had employed in the smaller, earlier houses.” (...) In this way, I discovered the compositional method that I call dichotomy, which is a fundamental spatial method of traditional Japanese architecture.”- Shinohara, K.6
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III. "Division of Space" Later Shinohara renames this ‘dichotomy’ method into the ‘Division of Space’ and explains how it works. Shinohara notes that a plan is made by a simple form and lines that cross each other in 90 degree angles.“While I was working on ‘The House at Chigasaki (1960), the first large-scale house I ever designed, I languished for a long time in my failure to discover a method of composing space which I could feel was my own. Then I found a basic spatial composition method that I later named ‘the division of space’. (...) If several straight lines cross each other at right angle or square, the space is divided. The
geometric pattern created through such an operation becomes a plan of architecture, or a house." - Shinohara, K.7
1. Kazuo Shinohara, The three primary spaces. / 2. Kazuo Shinohara, The Japanese conception of space, 1964 / 3. Kazuo Shinohara, Theory of Residential Architecture.1967 / 4. Kazuo Shinohara, Architecture Theory for 16 Houses, 1971. / 5. Kazuo Shinohara, Hans Ulrich Obrist in Conversation with Kazuo Shinohara, http://quaderns.coac.net/ en/2014/05/huo-shinohara/. 2015/10/26 / 6. Kazuo Shinohara, Towards architecture. 7. Kazuo Shinohara, Architecture Theory for 16 Houses, 1971.
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ELEMINATING JAPANESE TRADITION
THE THREE PRIMARY SPACES
Functional (USE)
WARM
ABSTRACTION
Traditional Japanese Symbolism became meaningful space. In the development of shinohara’s first style there are many literal references towards the old historic farmhouse dwellings. These references develop towards the concept of an emotional ‘connection of space’ and the symbolic space designed by shinohara changes into a ‘meaningful space’ in
COLD
his second style where he totally removed all connections with Japanese traditions. The so called ‘warm’ spaces become ‘cold’ and develop into a sachlichkeit style Shinohara used in his second style period.
SYMBOLIC
ABSTRACTION
MEANINGFUL
Ornamental (STYLE / BEAUTY)
Symbolic (MEANING)
Shinohara publised an extensive essay about his theories on Architectural space in the Japan Architect 6408. Here he tries to define what kind of elements space consists of and how those elements work together. Shinohara notes that these three design elements are not to be manipulated and always present, but the amount of expression is determined by the designing architect. The total of the design is a mixture of Functional space, Ornamental space and Symbolic space. ”The three primary spaces are functional space, Ornamental space, and symbolic space. (...) I am opposed to the generalization that space is an abstract concept which people manipulate to produce functional or symbolic architecture. (...) Although the abstract conception of colour certainly exists, colours themselves are insubstantial because they are the blending of red, blue, and yellow, the three primary colours, and the three primary spaces that I discuss are analogous (...) The architect, depending on various personality traits, may choose any of these primary spaces or a composite of the three.” - Kazuo Shinohara, K.1 In the first style these elements are found and developed in reproductable design tools. Functional use translates into ‘division of space’, symbolic space translates into the ‘connection of space’ and ornamentation is found in the farmhouse style.
BY: Doa Yu, Koki Suzuki, Puripat Ratanakoosakul, Shital Acharya, Sietse van Elderen, Sinan Kolip, Yuxuan Su