12 Houses Restored in Japan and Italy

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A08308

ESEMPI DI ARCHITETTURA

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Direttore

Olimpia NiglioUniversit degli Studi eCampus

Comitato scientifco

Taisuke KurodaKanto Gakuin University, Yokohama

Rubn Hernndez MolinaUniversidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano, Bogot

Alberto ParducciUniversit degli Studi eCampus

Enzo SivieroUniversit Iuav di Venezia, Venezia

Alberto SpositoUniversit degli Studi di Palermo

Comitato di redazione

Sara CacciolaUniversit degli Studi eCampus

Giuseppe De GiovanniUniversit degli Studi di Palermo

Marzia MarandolaUniversit degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata

Alessio Pipinato

Universit degli Studi di PadovaBruno PeluccaUniversit degli Studi di Firenze


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ESEMPI DI ARCHITETTURA

La collana editoriale Esempi di Architettura nasce per divulgarepubblicazioni scientifche edite dal mondo universitario e dai centridi ricerca, che ocalizzino lattenzione sulla lettura critica dei proget-ti. Si vuole cos creare un luogo per un dibattito culturale su argo-menti interdisciplinari con la fnalit di approondire tematiche atti-nenti a dierenti ambiti di studio che vadano dalla storia, al restau-ro, alla progettazione architettonica e strutturale, allanalisi tecnolo-gica, al paesaggio e alla citt.


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Twelve houses restored in Japan and Italy

edited byTaisuke KurodaOlimpia Niglio


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Copyright MMXIARACNE editrice S.r.l.

[email protected]

via Raaele Garoalo, 133/AB00173 Roma

(06) 93781065

ISBN 9788854841840

I diritti di traduzione, di memorizzazione elettronica,

di riproduzione e di adattamento anche parziale,

con qualsiasi mezzo, sono riservati per tutti i Paesi.

Non sono assolutamente consentite le otocopie

senza il permesso scritto dellEditore.

I edizione: luglio 2011

Patronage

Fondazione Romualdo del Bianco, Firenze, ItaliaInstitutional Member o the ICOMOS

Cover:Graphic image by Olimpia Niglio and Taisuke Kuroda,

Architectural restoration: a comparison between Japan and ItalyTranslated rom the Italian by Tom Muirhead


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A cultural petition is an ethical ac-tion that moves and justifies the

human activities; for this reason itdoesnt need any explication.

The preservation needs rise from

its satisfaction.

O.N., Florence, March 2011


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INDEX

7 ARCHITECTURAL RESTORATION:COMPARISON BETWEEN JAPAN AND ITALYOlimpia Niglio

17 TYPOLOGY OF RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE IN JAPANTaisuke Kuroda

COMPARISON AMONG ARCHITECTS27 HANKAI HOUSE

Katsuhiro Miyamoto

39 MARIAROSA HOUSE

Vito Corte

59 HOUSE AT AYASEManabu Naya, Arata Naya

69 RENOVATION OF A TABIFrancesco Loschi, Giuseppe Pagano, Paolo Panetto

91 IRIYAMA HOUSEAkira Kanehiro

103 RESTORATION OF SMALL VILLAGE OF TRADITIONAL STONE HOUSES

"TRULLI" FROM 1848Aldo Flore, Rosanna Venezia

123 NAGAYA AT TATEISHITaisuke Kuroda, Naoko Kuroda


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133 MATRIOSKA HOUSEMarco Imperadori

149 KYUDO-GAKUSYA

Yoko Chikazumi, Shinichi Chikazumi

161 TURIN:RESTORATION AND RENOVATION OF A BAROQUE

PALACE IN THE FORMER"CONTRADA DI DORA GROSSA"Franco Cucchiarati

175 TAKANE HEIGHTSShigeru Aoki

185 CONTEMPORARY RULES FOR RESTORATION OF ANINETEENTHCENTURY URBAN PALACE IN VICENZAChiara Visentin, Francesco Bortolini

203 BIOGRAPHY


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The restoration of architecture in a nation is a project strictly con-

nected to its culture, its society, as well as to the weather conditionsand to its political and economic background. The contemporary cul-

ture, in particular, has developed an awareness of the fact that the

main purpose of the conservation of monuments and landscape is not

only protecting the matter of social well but also its intrinsic values,

strongly connected to the sense of belonging to the place. The necessi-

ty of searching these values comes from the need of knowledge of the

different cultural references that permit to man to direct his choices asconcerns conservation and safeguard compared to popular areas of in-

terest apparently of less importance but vivid from the cultural and so-

cial point of view. And this is the birth of the relationship between

values and needs connected to the demand of transformation of urban

and housing contexts.

There is another important theme connected to all these aspects: the

change of life conditions in present society that determines a change

in the relationship between conservation and fruition of the singular

monuments and of the historical part of the city in its complex, in oth-

er words, the relationship between pre-existence and contemporary.

On these assumptions the bookTwelve houses restored in Japan and

Italy focuses on restoration projects of historical urban contexts,

where the theme of living produced changes, influenced different in-

tervention methods and functional choices without changing the sign

of history. The book wants to introduce restoration projects comparingdifferent cultural realities and architectonical methods that characte-

rized the present situation in Italy and Japan. The experiencesdescribed in the book notice an interesting sharing among the different

methods of restoration.

Florence - Yokohama May 25, 2011

Olimpia Niglio, Taisuke Kuroda


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7

Architectural Restoration:a comparison between Japan and Italy

Olimpia Niglio

It is on proper diagnosis and progno-

sis that the future of our discipline

(which in the present interdisciplinarydevelopment we are increasingly fre-

quently calling heritology).

Andrzej Tomaszewski, Florence 2009

Whether it be the maintenance of artistic, architectural, or environ-

mental assets developed in the past, or more generally any form of

knowledge, the conservation of cultural heritage pursues constructive

objectives to the extent that it enables each society to freely manage

their own cultural interests and to exercise their own capabilities, for

the development of their own knowledge, in respect of the ethical val-ues that distinguish their particular epoch and, consequently, the par-

ticular design paradigms of that epoch. For this reason the criteria

adopted for conserving historically important architectural assets are

bound to be affected by the nature of the social problems, and their re-

lated aspects, in the human ecosystem in which those assets are found.

For that reason we need to address the problem of how to analyse, in


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Twelve houses restored in Japan and Italy8

different contexts and in different countries, the bases on which these

points of reference are founded, since they are the motivating force

that generates the criteria for intervention; they establish the strategies

that gradually become consolidated practice for carrying out restora-tion work. Although in todays world economic values are becoming

more and more globalised, my considerations here are intended toshow that the conservation of cultural assets is a complex issue that

seems, instead, to be propagating a range of differentiated assessments

and approaches. Reflection is therefore needed so that we can acquire

knowledge of these complex types of human behaviour, their motiva-

tions, and the objectives they pursue, and compare them as we find

them in different cultural contexts: matters whose implications go

much wider than can be fully discussed at this particular time. Thesepresent observations report my findings in relation to the conservation

of architectural assets as I have experienced it whilst teaching and re-

searching in different countries.

Cultural Postulates

Today, at a time when the conservation of cultural heritage tends to be

approached in a narrowly specialist, circumscribed way, we no longer

find that there is any single valid or univocal response either in terms

of theoretical background or in the practical, operational field. What

we have come to understand is that the conservation of movable, fixed

or intangible assets pursues positive goals to the extent that it enables

different human societies to live in relation to their own environment,

and to exercise their own vital actions, as a function of the cultural

values that characterise their own existence. This is because the meth-ods that are used to critically establish how to recognise a value are

strongly influenced by the specific social, economic, political, andabove all the historical context in which any particular society ac-

quired its configuration. The requirement that we identify these values

by way of an analysis that simultaneously takes account of all the fac-

tors mentioned above, of the interferences between them and some-

times their tendency to come into conflict, is born out of the need to

refer to the real causes that make it possible for any social community

to orientate and individualise its own decisions, thereby to give a spe-


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Architectural Restoration: a comparison between Japan and Italy 9

cific meaning to its own life in the present and for the future. This

means that a relationship between values and needs has to come into

being, along with another related fundamental factor: knowledge of

the different ways in which the changes in the life conditions in differ-ent societies, as they are now, came about in the past and are still hap-

pening now: different ways of living together that can give rise to dif-ferent requirements when it comes to defining the relationship be-

tween the conservation and the use of individual buildings or architec-

turally important groups of buildings; all the more so in the case of

buildings which, taken together, form the historic cores of cities; and

from there, understanding the different forms that this relationship can

take insofar as it relates to what existed before and the situation as we

find it now.When we evaluated the different concepts on the basis of which dif-

ferent cultures have developed different interpretations of the past, the

various interpretations that derive there from can be taken as the basis

for constructing theories as to what kind of action would be appropri-

ate. These interpretations will also determine the different approaches

to be adopted for safeguarding and conserving heritage, specifically

architectural heritage.

Analysing the methods and criteria for intervention that we encounter

in the many social, cultural, economic and political realities that still

today differentiate all the human societies that populate our planet, it

seems to become clearer and clearer that the most important common

denominator is the relationship between historic value and usable

value. But this relationship is not based on fixed or unquestionable cri-

teria; it is caught up in a continuous process of reinterpretation that

closely connects to its cultural environment of reference, and thus to acultural postulate.

Every cultural postulate must be understood as an ethicalactwhich isthe driving force for human activities and at the same time, the justifi-

cation for them. As such it can be analysed on the basis of the historic

considerations that produced it, although of itself it does not require

justifying references. The requirements for architectural conservation

come from addressing and satisfying these postulates. In order to do

so in concrete terms, a conservation project must firstly and fore-

mostly acquire knowledge about the asset, including historical knowl-


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edge, so that this factual knowledge can then be used to determine

what the requirements should be for conserving the asset and what

methods should be used for implementing them. This concatenation of

factors makes it possible to identify suitable criteria that can guide theprocedures to be followed; thus the work can be carried out in respect

of the principles laid down by the cultural postulates, as the motivat-ing force that drives the activities of all human societies.

Every society is the bearer of its own cultural postulate which, since it

is also an ethical act, is closely linked to the history and environment

of that society, and therefore possesses an ecologicalmeaning. It fol-

lows that every conservation project must come into existence as eco-

logical action. In that sense the conservation of cultural heritage, in

any society, is one of the most important and indispensable referencesfor the further enlargement of its scope; and in all societies, the teach-

ing and training institutions have an essential role to play in that re-

gard.

In examining some real situations, the brief further notes that follow

are intended to demonstrate the importance of this unbreakable link,

as it exists in different societies. The two geographically and cultur-

ally differentiated situations I have taken as my reference make it pos-

sible to investigate the close interrelationship between knowledge of

an asset and its conservation. Although my choice of these two par-

ticular examples is coincidental in that it was the outcome of reflec-

tions suggested by personal experience, neither does it seem merely

casual. In fact in both settings, the cultural development that condi-

tions the practice of architectural conservation has taken directions

that were dictated by specific ethical principles and cultural postu-

lates. For that reason they cannot be generalised, because they findtheir own motivations in the histories and environments to which they

refer.

Japan

From what can be observed when we investigate projects that have

been carried out in accordance with one of the approaches currently

followed in the complex culture of the conservation of architectural

assets as it is practised in Japan, a first series of considerations


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emerges. It becomes evident that in Japan, the approach differs in sig-

nificant ways from the regulatory principles that are taken as the basis

for practice in a European setting. One of the first things that emerges

from this comparison is that in Japanese culture, space is not only per-ceived as a physical entity, but more importantly in terms of its rela-

tionship to the passage of time. The most well-known exemplificationof this, and one that has much to tell us in terms of helping us to un-

derstand Japanese philosophical principles and the criteria establishing

the conservation approach to which these principles lead, is the cycli-

cal activity of constant demolition and reconstruction carried out

every twenty years at the beautiful Ise-Jingu Shinto shrine, in the city

of Ise.

The suggestive schintoist sanctuary of Ise-Jingu in Ise

As elsewhere in Japanese culture, the definition of space at the Ise-Jingu shrine is based on the concept ofMA or sense of place: that is, a

way of perceiving space that varies from person to person and from


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time to time, on every occasion in which they find themselves occupy-

ing a particular place. From this we can infer that in Japan, the exis-

tence of things does not correspond to any permanent physical reality;

what prevails instead is experience of place, the poetic evocation ofspace in its beauty, which is linked to the nature contained in that the

space, at the single moment in which it is perceived. So more than adesire to conserve physical material, the prevalent intention we find at

the Ise-Jingu shrine is to transmit knowledge of construction tech-

niques and of the skills needed to carry them out.

This is of considerable interest for us in the West in that it accords

pre-eminence to the transmission of knowledge about operational

methods and criteria, in ways that has to a considerable extent now

been lost here, ever since the West elected for the most part to base ar-chitectural conservation on approaches that analyse an existing asset

as it is configured now.

Another important aspect of conservation culture in Japan, of which

we find confirmation at the Ise-Jingu shrine, is the awareness that the

characterising feature of existence is change; a concept of imperma-

nence that permeates all the philosophies and religions of the East;

there is nothing in any of the fields to which we can refer (animate or

inanimate, organic or inorganic) that could be defined as permanent.

Inevitably, like all the rest of life, our material surroundings are des-

tined to change, and are in continuous metamorphosis. So in the field

of architectural conservation as is in everyday life, the impermanence

of reality is a cultural postulate rooted in the principles on which the

culture of Zen Buddhism is based.

Kyoto, Shosei en Garden (photo A. Parducci)


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Italy

In Italy, the attitude to the conservation of architectural assets is pro-

foundly different from Japanese approaches. In Italy, conservation

culture is seen more in terms of ethical-cultural relationships that arestrongly conditioned by dogmatically consolidated references. In aca-

demic practice above all, there exist traditional established criteria thatinsist on classifying different methodological approaches that are

evaluated as appropriate according to the greater or lesser extent to

which they can be applied to the building to be restored. These meth-

odological means of orientation are often differently rooted in differ-

ent historic and geographical settings in which the practice of restora-

tion - rightly - is based on how things are done in that particular place.

But there is also often a tendency to fall into the bad habit of validat-ing one particular method rather than another by making recourse to

explanations of theoretical type rather than to explanations that relate

to the real issues inherent in the artefact to be restored.

In Italy the entire experience of restoration has been focussed on

amassing knowledge about the historically existing material; valid

support for this approach has been contributed by the sciences. In It-

aly, it is beyond doubt that the most important basis for every opera-

tive action in architectural conservation is history, and that the practi-

cal work must be carried out in accordance with codes of practice

that take careful account of the historical and cultural situations that

generated and transformed the object being restored. This approach is

thus linked to what has been physically inherited from the past, even

though this tends to be more in terms of formal interpretation than in

terms of its actual substance. Such positions do not favour artisan-

based approaches where the aim is to conserve traditional workingtechniques; nor can those positions do anything to foster a positive re-

lationship between old fabric and new construction, as we find insome other places. What is more, the problem of Italys historic urban

centres is analysed on the assumption that it is not possible to insert

contemporary architecture into them. Recent experience in Italy, in-

cluding in the scientific disciplines, has been underlining more and

more that the restoration and conservation of historic artefacts must be

closely linked to the values of art and science taken together, and that

operational methods must align themselves with those values. But


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since architectural restoration is in fact a process of architectural de-

sign, as such it must be based on principles of creativity and knowl-

edge. It must surely therefore be of interest that we investigate a new

attitude according to which art and technique are more and more in-separable; it is becoming clear that a search is under way to identify

interesting new approaches, particularly in projects where the opera-tional codes are less constraining.

S. Stefano in Sessanio:palace in the historical center; Parma:Auditorium; Roma:Ara Pacis

(detail); Roma: Crypta Balbi (detail); Lucca: St. Peter's Church. (photo: O. Niglio)


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Some conclusions

The two examples thus briefly mentioned can be taken as a demon-

stration of how the foundation for any true process of conservation is

the cultural postulate. Each example presents a different methodo-logical approach, but they share a common denominator: the essential

role of the cultural postulate that motivates them. This is fundamen-tally important for a revolution in design that ought to favour integra-

tion of the conservation requirements in different societies with their

own environment, their own technical development, and their own

material needs. But no accredited version of their cultural postulates

could be taken as an infallible guide for the conservation of their his-

toric-environmental values. Instead, what is required is an appropriate

intellectual sensibility which, respecting the requirements of the dif-ferent societies and the specific characteristics of the environment to

which they belong, favours the definition of a correct policy for de-

fending architectural heritage, each time in each place.

BibliografyISOZAKI A. (1978), Ma: espace-temps du Japon, Festival d'Automne Paris: cata-logue d'exposition, Muse des Arts Dcoratifs, Paris.

OKAKURA K. (2007),Lo Zen e la cerimonia del t, Feltrinelli, Milano.

NIGLIO O.,KUWAKINO K. (2010), Giappone. Tutela e conservazione di antiche tra-dizioni, Plus University Press, Pise.GIANIGHIAN G.,PAOLUCCI M.P. (2011),Il restauro in Giappone: architetture, citt,

paesaggi, Alinea Editrice, Firenze

TOMASKEWSKI

A.,

GIOMETTI

S. (2011), The Image of Heritage. Changing Percep-tion, Permanent Responsibilities, Conference of the ICOMOS International Scientif-

ic Committee for the Theory and the Philosophy of Conservation and Restoration,Edizioni Polistampa, Florence.

Translated from the Italian by Tom Muirhead


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Shinto priests walking beside the Ise Grand Shrine, Japan. Extract fromIn Gods Name by

Gdon and Jules Naudet.


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17

Typology of residential architecture in Japan

Taisuke Kuroda

This volume presents cases that feature the renovation of the three

types of Japanese traditional urban houses, Machiya (A. Kanehiro,

Iriyama house),Nagaya (T. Kuroda + N. Kuroda, Nagaya at Tatei-

shi), and Minka (M. Naya + A. Naya, House at Ayase and Y.

Miyamoto, Hankai house). In addition, as the symbolical examples

of contemporary Japan, two cases on the renovation of condominiums

in reinforced concrete are presented (Y. Chikazumi + S. Chikazumi,

Kyudo-gakusya and S. Aoki, Takane Heights).

This text aims to exemplify the perspective of the residential architec-

ture in Japan to understand better the idea behind these renovations as

well as to set every work in the historical context to showcase its cha-

racter.

Ancient - medieval era

Man is believed to have dwelled in theJapanese archipelago since the Paleolithic

period (approximately 50,000-30,000BC). Ancient people utilized the caves as

their shelter. As the population increased,

ancient people dug on the hillsides and

built artificial caves as dwelling places.

However, these houses did not remain be-

cause they suffered forces of nature such

as erosion.

1. Pit-house (reconstruction inToro archeological area)


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A somewhat similar example to the primitive cave-house, the pit-

house (Fig. 1) was imported by the northern people and became a

common dwelling type in Japan (14,000 BC-). The pit-house was a

semi-underground structure created by digging the ground at approx-imately 0.5-1 m. It had a circular or oval plan, measuring 3-6 m in di-

ameter. The log-pillars were located directly on the ground, rafterswere laid out radially on it, and the roof was covered with twigs and

grass.

The pit-house was the most common residential type. Contrastively,

with the division of social classes, the magnates of the era began liv-

ing in raised-floor-houses that had pillars and walls. The cereal store-

house with the raised floor was imported by the southern people and

became the archetype of the raised-floor-house, along with the rise ofthe rice crop culture. The house with the raised floor was the status

symbol of wealth and power. The magnates organized the religious

activities of the society living in such houses. With that, the style of

the Shinto Shrines became reminiscent of their house type (Fig. 2).

Architecture of the noblemans residence imported from China was

merged into the raised-floor-house. It evolved into the Shinden-zukuri

(Shinden: palace,zukuri: type), a typical type of noble residence in 8-

12C (Fig. 3).

2

3

3. Shinden-Zukuri (Residence of the Fujiwara clan(10C), reconstruction).

2. Ise Shrine. Example of succession of the Raised-floor-house.

12 Houses Restored in Japan and Italy

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