Japanese Architectural Values through Time

Frank Lloyd Wrights Usonian House and the Creation of a Modern Japanese-Usonian Hybrid

Audrey Anderson 2007-2008 An Honors Thesis in Architectural Studies

Table of Contents
PART I Frank Lloyd Wrights Usonian House: A Reincarnation of Traditional Japanese Architecture

Introduction: Frank Lloyd Wright and His Vision for America..4 A Walk through the Usonian House7 A Westerners Observations on Japanese Architecture.....15 Frank Lloyd Wright Meets Japan..22 The Kinship of the Usonian House and Japanese Home...30 Conclusion: An Architecture for Our Own Changed Life Conditions...46

PART II

The Creation of a Modern Japanese-Usonian Hybrid: Time-Tested Values in Todays Architecture

House Description..52 Model Pictures...56 Model Drawings.59

PART I

Frank Lloyd Wrights Usonian House: A Reincarnation of Traditional Japanese Architecture

Introduction: Frank Lloyd Wright and His Vision for America

Figure 1: Frank Lloyd Wright (18671959) Born to a poor family in Wisconsin, Wright attended but never graduated both high school and college. He interned at the firm of Adler & Sullivan, but left and established his own practice after a falling out with Sullivan. Despite a volatile career, Wright rose to the forefront of the architecture industry with his ground-breaking organic design and tireless attention to the development of architecture for the people. Many today still recognize him as the Father of American Architecture.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Frank Lloyd Wright revolutionized American architecture with his innovative approaches to design and construction. Often called Americas greatest architect, he was without a doubt one of the foremost leaders in the progression of American architectural design. Critics today still recognize works of his such as Fallingwater and the Guggenheim museum as some of the greatest examples of architectural design in America, if not the world. Although Wright established himself as an architect by designing grand buildings such as these for the elite, his true passion lay in creating small, organic, affordable houses for the everyday family. He strongly believed that every individual deserved

excellent architecture, and moreover that excellent architecture did not necessarily equal expensive architecture. From these beliefs arose his solution for architecture for everyman. Throughout his life, he designed and built more than one hundred small-scale family homes, affordable houses with innovative design that incorporated his architectural ideals on a human scale. These homes came to be known as Usonian houses, a term that Wright used himself to indicate the United States Of North America, as well as to allude to the term utopia. This was his visiona utopia of small, organic, family homes throughout the United States.

Figure 2: The PopeLeighey House, Mount Vernon, Virginia, 1939 Originally built in Falls Church, Virginia, in 1939, this typical Usonian house was moved to Mount Vernon, Virginia, in 1964. Including the land and interior furniture, this total cost of this house fell under $7,000 in 1939.

Wright first used the term Usonia in the mid 1920s to refer simply to America, in order to distinguish the United States from Canada and Mexico.1 From the mid 1930s until he died, he described nearly all of his houses as Usonian, since they displayed his
1

Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks, Ed., Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings, Volume 1: 1894-1930 (New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1992) p. 227.

ideals for American residential architecture.2 In addition to reforming the American home, Wright was determined to revamp the urban landscape of the United States, alleviating the problems of congestion, disrepair, and poverty. He believed the single cure to the urban issue lay in decentralization, and he called his new plan for urban America Broadacre City.3 Broadacre City consisted of a decentralized grid of individual family homesUsonian houseseach built on a single acre of land and connected by a transportation system catering to the automobile. Highly idealized, these communities required extreme political and social conditions that were far from realization.4 While the plan for Broadacre City never materialized, Wright built dozens of varieties of the Usonian house throughout the United States, gently transforming Americas concept of the family home. Figure 3: Broadacre City, 1932 This drawing by Wright illustrates his futuristic plans for a decentralized urban environment consisting of single-family Usonian homes. Presented in 1932, it embodied his belief that every North American should own an efficient home, an automobile, and land, without sacrificing the conveniences of a city.
2 3

Lind, Carla, Frank Lloyd Wrights Usonian Houses (San Francisco: Pomegranate Artbooks, 1994) p. 9. Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks, Ed., Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings, Volume 4: 1939-1949 (New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1994) p. 257. 4 Sergeant, John, Frank Lloyd Wrights Usonian Houses: The Case for Organic Architecture (New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1976) p. 123.

A Walk through the Usonian House

Figure 4: Jacobs House, Madison, Wisconsin, 1936. The first of two homes built for Herbert Jacobs, this house has widely been considered the first Usonian house. As seen in the design of the exterior of the home, Wright often emphasized the horizontal line, in order to blend his houses into the landscape, as well as exaggerate their scale.

In the wake of the Great Depression, a great need arose for inexpensive and efficient family homes. The Usonian house provided a solution. While there is some debate concerning which of Wrights houses was the first true Usonian home, the Jacobs House, built in 1936, is generally recognized to be the original.5 Each of his nearly 140 Usonian houses built since then was designed according to strict guidelines to tailor the home to the human scale, connect it with nature, and maximize efficiency. These three
5

Lind, 19.

goals are at the heart of Wrights Usonian house, and were accomplished through a variety of methods and innovations. First of all, Wright formatted his plan for the home to accommodate the human scale, emphasize privacy, and focus on the family. Convinced that tall ceilings and expansive rooms were overrated and unnecessary, Wright scaled down his homes to an intimate size, and relied on a variety of means to compensate for the small size. He used the horizontal line liberally, proclaiming it to be the line of domesticity, rooting the house to the ground as well as giving the illusion of grand scale.6 He also used a compression-and-release tactic to make the house seem much larger on the inside by raising the ceiling and lowering the floor a few feet just inside the entrance. Without allowing the space to feel or appear cramped, Wright was able to severely downscale the actual size of the house. Figure 5: Jacobs House floor plan The floor plan of the Wrights Jacobs house clearly shows his Lshaped plan utilized to increase privacy and center the home on the garden.

Maddex, Diane, Wright-Sized Houses: Frank Lloyd Wrights Solutions for Making Small Houses Feel Big (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2003) p. 24.

Along with his focus on the human scale, Wright designed his homes to increase the privacy of the inhabitants. He often designed the homes in an L-shape around a private garden space, with an enclosed opposite wall providing solitude from the public. On that public-facing wall especially, Wright often placed a number of clerestory windows to provide light without opening the house up to the commotion outside. Finally, he hid the main entrance of the house, often requiring the enterer to follow a winding walkway to reach the door. Inside the entrance, he placed a foyer to provide welcome and introduction to the home, as well as shield the rest of the house from outside activity.7

Figure 6: Pope-Leighey House entrance Tucked away behind the carport, the entrance of the Pope-Leighey House is both private and majestic.

Maddex, 58.

Figure 7: Pope-Leighey House hearth Wright designed his homes to focus around the hearth, an essential component of any house in his mind, representing nature and family.

Once inside the house, the inhabitants were enclosed in a community-oriented space that emphasized the family. Wright completely opened up the living space, connecting the dining and sitting areas in one fluid space. At the center of this open area, he placed a hearth which, although not specifically needed for heating, was essential for the soul of the house, symbolizing family, community, and naturalness. Each of Wrights Usonian houses contained a central fireplace, embodying his commitment to the people within the homes he built.

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Figure 8: Zimmerman House, Manchester, New Hampshire, 1950 This Usonian house faces a beautiful garden, another essential element in Wrights homes.

Wrights second major aim in designing his Usonian houses was to keep them as natural and organic as possible. The garden was a vital part of the house, often found at the center of his L-shaped design. He positioned the house with a great respect to the landscape, and attempted to bring those natural surroundings inside wherever he could. He employed terraces and balconies to connect the indoor and outdoor spaces as well as draw the inhabitants out into nature. He blurred the line between wall and window, casting aside the traditional concept of both in favor of a screen-like wall and floor-toceiling windows that allowed the outside to continually seep inside. He often composed corners completely out of glass, allowing the two walls to flow seamlessly into the outdoors.8 When artificial lighting was required, he designed it to be unobtrusive and indirect, mirroring the natural lighting of the sun. In the composition of the house, he relied heavily on natural materials for construction and natural colors for adornment. In word and action, he exhibited exceptional deference to nature, a quality particularly unique during that era of American architecture. In one of his earliest writings, he
8

Maddex, 34-36.

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declared, Nature is a good teacher. I am a child of hers, and apart from her precepts cannot flourish.9 Without fail, each and every one of Wrights Usonian houses served as a tribute to nature.

Figure 9: Ellis Feiman House, Canton, Ohio, 1954 The wall that separates this Usonian house from the outside is constructed entirely out of window banks. At the corner, Wright allowed two panels of glass to intersect seamlessly to give the illusion that the home simply flows into the outdoors.

Finally, the Usonian house was based upon the need for affordability and efficiency. With this in mind, Wright reinvented the concept of necessity in the home, eliminating certain features that had previously been taken for granted as essential. He did away with the garage, using instead a carport composed of a large, open shelter

Pfeiffer, Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings, Volume 1: 1894-1930, 31.

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cantilevered into the structure of the house.10 He combined the dining and living spaces into one open area, maximizing the interior space, and reduced the kitchen and bathroom to minimal sizes. Furnishings and ornamentation were built into the actual structure of the house, eliminating the need for further additions. He used a highly efficient system of heating consisting of pipes of warm water running beneath the concrete floors.11 While remaining committed to natural materials, he gladly used them in inexpensive, standardized units, and minimized the number of different materials used in each house. The actual composition of the house was also formed on a basic grid consisting of vertical modules of one foot, one inch.12 These methods not only saved the clients valuable money, but also guided the house towards Wrights desired aims of community and unified simplicity.

Figure 10: Rosenbaum House, Florence, Alabama, 1948 This view from the outside shows the cantilevered carport that took the place of the more expensive garage in the Usonian homes.

10 11

Lind, 15. Lind, 15. 12 Maddex, 39.

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The Usonian house was revolutionary for its time. During an era of Europeaninspired architecture, Wright looked instead to Asian and Hispanic influences for his work. He undoubtedly harbored a deep respect for Japanese artistic ideals, going to great lengths to collect woodblock prints and making several trips to Japan for research as well as work. Commissioned in to design the Tokyo Imperial Hotel, he spent a great deal of time and effort scrutinizing both ancient and modern Japanese architecture in order that his building would appropriately respond to its surroundings. Between 1916 and 1922, Wright oversaw the construction of the hotel in Tokyo.13 Admittedly, Wright agreed with many of the architectural and spiritual ideals that he discovered in the Japanese culture, although he claimed that Japanese art did not directly influence his design, but merely confirmed his own theories on architecture.14 Whether Frank Lloyd Wright intentionally incorporated Japanese ideals into his work or whether his Usonian house and the traditional Japanese house simply have similar goals and thus similar means, a closer look at Japanese architecture reveals striking similarities with Wrights Usonian houses.

13 14

Pfeiffer, Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings, Volume 1: 1894-1930, 162-163. Nute, Kevin, Frank Lloyd Wright and Japan (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1993), p. 2.

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A Westerners Observations on Japanese Architecture

Figures 11-12: Exterior and Interior of the Japan House, University of Illinois, 1998 Built through a collaboration of Japanese and American designers, this building on the University of Illinois campus serves as a center for learning about Japanese culture. The house includes common elements of sukiya style architecture, such as simple lines, wooden construction, a central garden, tatami, fusuma, and shoji. Thus, observers can easily identify the architecture as Japanese, based on its characteristic sukiya components.

The Japanese theories and approaches to architecture are as elusive as they are distinctive. It is quite simple for a foreigner to identify the traditional Japanese style of architecture, with its tatami mats and sliding shoji screens, but it is decidedly more difficult to pinpoint the reasons for such uniformity throughout this Japanese aesthetic. Traditional Japanese houses were built upon a foundation of thousands of years of

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cultural and religious history that dictated its means of structure, construction, layout, and design. Such solid history has also led to an extremely sturdy set of philosophies and beliefs about the nature and role of architecture and the home. The traditional style of Japanese architecture that is so distinctive to foreigners is known as sukiya, a style dating back to the sixteenth century. This type of design centers around naturalness and simplicity, and, although it never played a prominent role in modern Japanese architecture, the sukiya style has survived excellently through history, and even today is revered amidst the increasing Western influences. Well known Japanese architectural writer Teiji Itoh claims that the reasons for the impressive durability of the sukiya style lie in its spiritual roots. The underlying philosophy of the sukiya style remains constant, while the materials and methods used to express these beliefs are allowed to change with time.15 However, as viewed by Westerners, there are multiple elements to describe the Japanese concept of the house. As noted before with the sukiya style, Japanese architecture is dictated by an overwhelming attention to spirituality. Found within this category are naturalness and simplicity, as key elements of the Shinto religion.16 Secondly, architectural honesty is crucial in Japanese design, through the expression of the process of creating and then experiencing the house. Finally, whether this characteristic is a means to these previously declared ends or an ends itself, multifunctionality is an ever present theme in Japanese architecture. In materials, layout, and design, there are multiple levels of use and intention. Through this list of features,
15

Itoh, Teiji, The Classic Tradition in Japanese Architecture: Modern Versions of the Sukiya Style (New York: Weatherhill, 1972), pp.12-13. 16 Kasulis, Thomas P., Shinto: The Way Home (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004), p. 44.

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although it is by no means extensive, one can begin to gain an insight into the Japanese concept of the architecture of the home.

Figure 13: The simple interior of a sukiya-style house reveals clean lines, the natural wood structure, and an absence of excessive decoration.

First and foremost, the distinctive Shinto characteristics of simplicity and naturalness are found throughout the traditional Japanese architecture of the home. Ideally, Japanese rooms are stripped of all unnecessary objects and ornaments and composed of clean lines. The houses themselves are composed of natural materials, particularly wood, and they are inextricably tied with nature and their surroundings. Large sliding shoji panels are built into the house to open up the interior to the garden, another essential element of the home, as necessary as a bathroom or kitchen. When

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closed, the shoji screens allow natural light to illuminate the entire room.17 The tatami mats used on the floor, while not innately natural, are designed to efficiently and cleanly bring into the home the feel of straw.18 Furthermore, even the bathroom is designed with acute consideration of Shinto beliefs. The room is set up so that individuals would shower before entering the bath, in order to facilitate total purification of the body and mind.19 Every aspect of the Japanese house is designed to be exquisitely minimalist and honor the Shinto traditions of naturalness and simplicity.

Figure 14: The shoji panels of a Japanese room slide aside to expose a view of the garden, letting the natural outside seep seamlessly into the inside, while the beautifully painted fusuma screens serve as flexible dividers between rooms.

Ishimoto, Tatsuo and Kiyoko, The Japanese House: Its Interior and Exterior (New York: Bonanza Books, 1963), p. 28. 18 Kasulis, 43. 19 Kasulis, 52-53.

17

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Secondly, the Japanese house is designed to reveal itself to the visitor honestly and politely, through the appreciation of the materials used, as well as the unfolding of the house. First of all, quite simply, the natural materials used in the house are expressed without remorse. The interior wood is rarely painted, and the structure of the house is openly revealed. Furthermore, the house guides its visitors throughout it, slowly introducing itself and opening up completely. First, the path to the Japanese house approaches with a curve or diagonal line, mirroring the Japanese association of directness with impoliteness. The path takes the visitor through the entry gate by a small garden and up to the genkan, or vestibule in which shoes are removed before entering the house. Typically at this point, the house fully opens up to reveal several rooms separated by fusuma, or sliding panels, and shoji screens that can be opened to expose a main garden.20 In both the materials and the layout, the Japanese home proves to be a gentle and honest experience. Finally, the Japanese home embraces multifunctional materials and structures. The rooms themselves are designed to be versatile, used for sitting rooms during the daytime and bedrooms at night. Futons are kept in the closet to be used at night and replaced during the day to open up the room for other uses.21 Tatami mats not only provide a connection with nature, but serve to keep the house clean and quiet. Since visitors remove shoes before the house, they track in little dirt and make minimal sound on the soft mats, a quality greatly appreciated in the open Japanese house. The mats are extremely resilient, composed of the standard size of about three by six feet, and can be

20 21

Ishimoto, 18-21. Ishimoto, 37.

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easily removed for cleaning.22 The shoji and fusuma panels allow the entire house to become mutable and adaptable. By simply sliding a panel aside, a bedroom becomes a porch, two rooms become one room, and a wall becomes a door. Whether it is necessary because of the emphasis on simplicity, or it is a valued quality in itself, multifunctionality is a key ingredient in the architecture of the Japanese home.

Figure 15: Roughly three by six feet in dimension, the tatami mat serves as the floor module for traditional Japanese homes.

22

Ishimoto, 22.

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The home is a fantastic study in the many layers of Japanese aesthetics and philosophy. Rooted in the prized sukiya style, with its great deference to Shinto beliefs and its curious uniformity throughout the country, the home becomes an incredible window into Japanese culture. Although these values have changed significantly to accommodate modern and Western ideals, the appreciation for these beliefs has remained constant. Such values emphasized in the home have become increasingly attractive to Westerners, who have adopted a number of Japanese aesthetics and aims in their own set of architectural beliefs and practices.

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Frank Lloyd Wright Meets Japan

Figure 16: Ho-o-den, Worlds Columbian Exposition, 1893 This elaborate display of Japanese architecture at the Worlds Fair in Chicago was arguably Wrights first true experience with Japanese architecture.

Frank Lloyd Wright has often been called a pioneer, an originator, an architectural inventor. Truly no one was more aware of this than Wright himself. While he commented extensively on various types of architecture, he never suggested that he copied any elements of outside design. In discussing his Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, he asserted, While there is something Japanese, Chinese, and of other ancient forms living in this structure as all may see, there is neither form, nor pattern copied from any, ancient
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or modern. It is reverent to old Japan, that is all.23 Nonetheless, much of his architecture, not just the Imperial Hotel, tends to be uncommonly reverent to old Japan compared to many American architects of his time. While Wright may not have intentionally copied any elements of Japanese architecture, his work undoubtedly paid homage to traditional Japanese aesthetic values. Unsurprisingly, his exposure to Japanese architecture occurred early in his career, and only increased as his work and influence progressed. Wrights gradual conversion to an appreciation of Japanese aesthetics and architecture began the same year that he opened his own architectural practice. In 1893, Chicago hosted one of Americas most famous Worlds Fairs, the Worlds Columbian Exposition. While European art and architecture dominated the fair, a sizable Japanese exhibit displayed a number of buildings in the sukiya style of architecture, including a tea house, a bazaar, and a pavilion known as the Ho-o-den to house Japanese artworks. As the press for the Worlds Fair was unsurpassed, and as Wright was already involved in a number of Chicagos cultural organizations, he would have been unable to escape the influence of the Worlds Fair.24 Sharply contrasted with the numerous surrounding European buildings, the Ho-o-den stood out for its deviation from the traditional box form, horizontal line emphasis, and unashamed combination of spiritual and domestic elements including a central organization around a shrine.25 After experiencing the disparity between the Eastern and Western buildings at the Fair, Wright expressed disgust for the overdone state of Western architecture, declaring, I had just opened my office in

23 24

Pfeiffer, Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings, Volume 1: 1894-1930, 164. Nute, 48-49. 25 Nute, 61-62.

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the Schiller Building, 1893, when came disasterChicagos first Worlds Fair. The fair seemed to me more than ever a tragic travesty: florid countenance of theoretical BeauxArts formalisms.26 After the Western world of architecture fell short, Wright needed inspiration from a new source.

Figure 17: Satta no Kaijo, by Hiroshige Suruga, 1859 Wright adored Japanese woodblock prints such as this, deliberately drawing from their composition in his own design. The grand simplicity seen in this print affected Japanese architecture of the 1800s, Wrights architecture of the 1900s, and can affect the architecture of today and tomorrow in everchanging ways.

A prominent player at the Worlds Columbian Exposition provided Wright with heightened access to such inspiration. Ernest Fenollosa, a professor and art historian who had organized the Japanese art collection at the Fair, was responsible for preserving an extensive number of Japanese fine art works. Although Wright had already begun to dabble in collecting Japanese woodblock prints, Fenollosas collection and knowledge allowed him to expand his own reservoir of artistic inspiration. He collected prints steadily, and by 1912 had written several essays praising the woodblock print for its

26

Nute 53.

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geometric form.superior loveliness and human meaning.27 Possibly the closest that Wright ever came to declaring a debt to one source of inspiration occurred with his worship of the woodblock print: I have never confided to you the extent to which the Japanese print as such has inspired me. I never got over my first experience with it and I shall never probably recover. I hope I shant. It was the great gospel of simplification and that came over me; the elimination of all that was insignificant.28 Wright was smitten.

Figure 18: Gamble House, by Greene and Greene, Pasadena, CA, 1908 The Greene brothers designed this house intentionally incorporating Japanese elements, in keeping with the popular Japonisme trend at the time.

However, Wright was not the only architect to take notice of the Japanese aesthetic. When Japan opened to the West in the mid-nineteenth century, many artists
27 28

Pfeiffer, Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings, Volume 1: 1894-1930, 118. Pfeiffer, Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings, Volume 1: 1894-1930, 116.

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and architects borrowed from its style. This sudden increase in the popularity of Japanese art forms became known as Japonisme, and extended to all facets of Western art, becoming a crucial influence in the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau movements of the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. A number of major architects at that time adopted this style, such as the Greene brothers, who openly siphoned the Japanese influence into their work. Their work on the West Coast utilized specifically Japanese elements such as the roof form and organization, open floor plan, and shoji-style windows.29 Albeit unconsciously, Wright certainly took part in the Japonisme way of thinking that had begun to infiltrate American architecture.

Figure 19: The Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, Japan Commissioned in 1916 and completed in 1923, this hotel represents years of Wrights study on Japanese architecture, as well as a deliberate blending of Japanese and Western design.
29

Nute, 18.

26

In the early 1900s, Wright began to fully immerse himself in Japanese culture. He traveled to Japan for the first time in 1905, and he accepted a commission in 1915 to begin designing a hotel for foreign visitors to Japan, Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.30 For the next seven years, Wright spent an extensive amount of time studying the architectural history of Japan to design a hotel that would welcome foreign inhabitants and introduce them to Japan. He began study and work on the hotel less than two years after the tragic fire at his home at Taliesin in which his mistress Mamah Cheney was killed.31 His scandalous relationship with his mistress had put him out of favor with American society, and he had just begun to enter a stage of his life in which he was considered to be in exile. Retreating from the American scene, he immersed himself in the study of Japanese architecture and the design of the Imperial Hotel. During this stage, he delved more deeply into the ingrained spirituality of Japanese architecture, unattainable by the Westerners practicing from secondhand prints. Wright purposely intended his Imperial Hotel to be a specifically Japanese building, a tribute to Japan in the capital city in which there was not a single building...that showed a real love for Japan.32 Thus, he specifically channeled certain elements which he believed represented the heart of Japanese architecture, beginning with an almost exact copy of a traditional Japanese architectural layout.

James, Cary, The Imperial Hotel: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Architecture of Unity (Rutland: Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc., 1968) p. 21. 31 Wright, Olgivanna Lloyd, Frank Lloyd Wright: His Life, His Work, His Words (New York: Horizon Press, 1966) p. 210. 32 Pfeiffer, Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings, Volume 1: 1894-1930, 162-165.

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Figure 20: Shinden-Zukuri Style Floor Plan Figure 21: Imperial Hotel Floor Plan, Tokyo, Japan, 1916 The floor plan of Wrights Imperial Hotel mirrors the traditional shinden-zukuri layout, which highlights the shinden, or sleeping hall.

During the Heian period in Japan, around the eighth to twelfth century, a style of architecture known as shinden-zukuri became popular. One of the first specifically Japanese architectural layouts operating without any Chinese influence, this plan includes a central shinden (sleeping room), three flanking tai no ya (pavilions), two adjoining wataridono (verandas), and two long ro (corridors).33 Wright utilized this traditional Japanese style almost exactly in his development of the Imperial Hotel floor plan, quite possibly impressed by its uniquely Japanese qualities. After spending seven years submerged in the study of Japanese forms and constructions, Wright would be forever affected by their influence.

33

Bryant, Anthony J., Shinden-Zukuri Estates of the Heian Period, 2001, (7 April 2008), <http://www.sengokudaimyo.com/shinden/Shinden.html>.

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Wright fostered a complex and contradictory relationship with Japanese art and architecture. He loved the art and hated the architecture, but used principles of both in his own work. He avidly collected woodblock prints and shamelessly credited them for his inspiration. At the same time, he heavily critiqued Japanese architects for their aesthetic decisions and their willingness to imitate foreign design components in their modern architecture, stating, Japanese architects have betrayed their country.34 When a historian attempted to point out the Japanese influences in Wrights early architecture, he responded, I knew nothing of Japanese Architecture until I first saw it in 1906, and yet by 1906 he had amassed an impressive collection of woodblock prints.35 From 1916 to 1923, Wright delved into traditional Japanese architecture forms and practices to create the Imperial Hotel, which Wright himself labeled a Japanese-inspired building. Whether intentional or not, his buildings would be inexplicably and increasingly tied to Japanese aesthetics. Rather than imitate architectural elements, a practice that he despised, Wright identified with the principles behind the art and architecture of Japan, and incorporated these principles as he pleased into his own modern creations.

34 35

Pfeiffer, Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings, Volume 1: 1894-1930, 165. Pfeiffer, Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings, Volume 1: 1894-1930, 258.

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The Kinship of the Usonian House and Japanese Home

Figure 22: Evening at Tagonoura, Hasui Figure 23: Goetsch-Winkler House, Frank Lloyd Wright, Okemo, MI, 1939 This woodblock print from Frank Lloyd Wrights collection mirrors this image of one of his earlier Usonian homes.

Without a doubt, Frank Lloyd Wright harbored a particular fondness for Japanese art, seen in his great efforts to collect Japanese woodblock prints and his willingness to accept the commission for the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo in 1916. After his careful study of Japanese artwork, coupled with the six years he spent working and studying in Japan, Wright could not escape the influence of Japanese aesthetics in his design work. Nonetheless, he claimed stoutly that Japanese work did not directly and formally affect
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his architecture. Instead, he maintained that a closer study of Japanese architecture merely validated his own beliefs.36 Whether conscious or unconscious, the similarities between the Japanese home and Wrights houses are abundant. While Japanese qualities appeared in a great number of Wrights grander homes, the deeply rooted philosophies of Japanese architecture can be found most truly at the heart of the Usonian home. Simplicity, the core of Japanese domestic architecture, was the key to the success of the Usonian home. Both houses embodied the same principles of naturalness and harmony, along with a profound appreciation for beauty. Wright conceived the Usonian idea as the solution to the need for affordable American housing without sacrificing his aesthetic convictions. At the forefront of these convictions stood the requirement that a structure must acknowledge and appreciate its surroundings, not shield the inhabitants from them. The combination of this attention to nature and the simplicity required for efficiency and affordability in a Usonian house created a building that exemplified the Shinto characteristics present throughout nearly all traditional Japanese architecture. With such parallel core values, the Usonian house and the Japanese home share outstanding similarities in their structure, layout, and composition. A formal comparison of these two initially very different types of homes reveals these similarities in both conceptualization and implementation. The Japanese and Usonian houses share four major concepts that implement themselves in similar manners throughout the homes. First of all, both give special attention to the entryway to enhance the experiential quality of the home. Second, both give careful consideration to nature and the surroundings, connecting the inside of the home with the outside world. The
36

Nute, 2.

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actual structures of both homes include an appreciation for openness and a direct disregard for the typical box shape of the house. Finally, both homes share an affinity for aesthetic simplicity. Within each category as well, the implementations of these concepts produce equivalent structural qualities in both the Usonian and Japanese house. 1. An Experience Beginning at the Entrance

Figure 24: This quiet pathway passes gardens to the genkan at the left, the entrance room where one can remove shoes and greet the host before entering and experiencing the house.

Figure 25: Kentuck Knob entrance, Chalk Hill, Pennsylvania Wright likewise emphasized the entrance of his Usonian houses, guiding the enterer to approach the house at an angle and up steps in order to fully experience the home.

Both Wright and the Japanese tradition scorned the idea of the house as a static container for the inhabitants. They believed that the home was meant to be an experience, guiding the inhabitant into and throughout it as a constant, fluid process. The house would gradually introduce itself to the visitor, slowly and purposefully unfolding. The
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key to the houses evolution into an experience lay in the careful treatment of the entrance to the home, this critical first impression when a visitor meets the home. The entrance path and doorway were no longer an afterthought, but essential participants in the introduction of a dwelling to its dweller. Before they reach the actual building, individuals are guided to approach the Usonian and Japanese homes in similar manners. The path to a Japanese home draws a winding or diagonal route to the entrance, in keeping with the Japanese view that directness equals impoliteness. Often the entry would include a gate for privacy and embellishment of the doorway into the home.37 Wright also emphasized the entrance more than most residential architects of the time, believing that a doorway should be proportional to the wall and welcoming to the inhabitants as they entered their home. He designed his Usonian houses with indirect paths as well, with the aim of enhancing the experience of the house as well as the privacy of the inhabitants.38 While the reasons for the construction of these entranceways may have differed, they produced quite similar results. Once individuals entered the Japanese house, they found themselves inevitably in the genkan, or foyer, of the home in which they removed their shoes before entering the actual house. Such an entry completed the goal of facilitating the transition from outside to inside.39 Without fail, Wright included a foyer in his Usonian homes as well, viewing this entryway as necessary in a house otherwise stripped of superfluity. The foyer served the vital purposes of welcoming the enterer, shielding the remainder of the house from
37 38

Ishimoto, 18. Maddex, 31. 39 Black, Alexandra, The Japanese House: Architecture and Interiors (Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 2000) pp. 90-91.

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outdoor chaos, transitioning from outdoors to indoors, and playing a key role in the compression-and-release tactic that Wright frequently used to make his homes appear larger than they actually were.40 As the inhabitant stepped just beyond the entry room, the ceiling raised several feet, causing the actual living space to seem grand and open. Entry foyers played important parts in both the Japanese and Usonian homes, overall providing a gentle transition from the outside to inside and properly welcoming the enterer. 2. Bringing the Outside In

Figure 26: The garden is an essential component of any Japanese house, often including greenery, rocks, and stone sculptures.

Figure 27: Zimmerman House Additionally, Wrights Usonian houses were not complete without Japanese-inspired gardens including carefully placed rocks and shrubbery.

40

Maddex, 58.

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Not only should the house be simply any experience, but it should be an experience of nature and the surrounding landscape. The house should not shield the inhabitants from the outside, but invite them to experience it more deeply. The Usonian and Japanese homes both fully embraced this concept, giving attention to nature in virtually every aspect of the house. Unsurprisingly, the garden held a prominent role in both houses, but beyond that, the very treatment of walls, windows, lighting, and materials revealed the reverence of nature shown by each. In an effort to increase the affordability and efficiency of the Usonian house, Wright eliminated many accepted components of the house such as a garage, basement, and attic; however, he considered the garden an essential element. The common L-shape of the Usonian house served the distinct purpose of focusing the home around the garden. He maintained strict beliefs about the role and characteristics of the garden of a home, stating that only native plants should be used, and arranged in a natural growing situation to preserve and even enhance the landscape as much as possible, as well as blur the line between architecture and nature.41 The garden was perhaps the most distinctly Japanese of any of the features of the Usonian house. Wright stated with veneration, Japan is Garden-land, and did not attempt the hide the similarities between the Japanese garden and his Usonian gardens.42 Both valued the naturalness of the plants, abandoning artificial planting and pruning techniques. Although Wright typically forbade any added ornamentation in his houses, he allowed his commissioners to use Japanese stone structures in the gardens, such as the

41 42

Maddex, 41. Pfeiffer, Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings, Volume 1: 1894-1930, 177.

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lantern added to the Palmer House in Michigan.43 The structure and layout of both houses centered on the garden, automatically giving it great importance. Through the use of similar techniques in dealing with the walls and windows of the home, they further opened the home to the garden and surroundings.

Figure 28: The banks of windows surrounding the tatami room of this large-scale Japanese house allow the inhabitant to completely experience the garden while still inside.

Figure 29: Cedar Rock, Buchanan County, Iowa, 1950 The living area of this Usonian home also focuses entirely on the garden, with the division between interior and exterior blurred by large panels of windows.

43

Maddex, 44.

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Walls and windows in the Japanese home were virtually interchangeable. Through the use of sliding shoji screens, walls became windows and doors at will, opening the entire structure of the house and providing the perfect view of the garden outside.44 Walls were not designed to be permanent barriers, but rather temporary definitions of a space. Windows were simply the absence of these walls. Wright combined the Japanese and Western concepts of enclosures to produce a Usonian hybrid version of walls and windows. Typical Western architecture treated walls as firm barriers with holes in them for windows. While Wright did not completely throw away the Western idea of a wall, he did profess to the attempt to develop them into the function of a screen.45 Using the cantilever for which he became so famous, he could do away with the rigid Western wall that served structural purposes, and molded his free-standing screen into the precise aesthetic module that he wished. Wrights penchant for glass became apparent in frequent floor-to-ceiling windows present in great panels along the sides of his homes. Often he even extended the windows all the way to the end of the wall, completely eliminating the visual corner of a home and giving the house the feeling of seamlessly extending to the outside. He referred to his window banks as light screens, serving as yet another flexible means of enclosing an area.46 While Wright did not completely convert to the Japanese method of screens instead of walls and windows, he specifically and admittedly treated them as such. They became the physical link between the Japanese and Western views of enclosures.

44 45

Ishimoto, 28-29. Maddex, 34. 46 Maddex, 36.

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Figure 30: The interior of a Japanese home is divided by sliding fusuma panels and shoji screens, which slide away to create windows and doors in between rooms and to the outside.

Figure 31: Pope-Leighey House interior Although he did not use the traditional fusuma and shoji, Wright incorporated the Japanese concept of interior divisions by using floor-to-ceiling window banks and screen-like walls, instead of the Western concept of window holes and swing doors.

In traditional Japanese houses, natural lighting and candles illuminated the homes, but clearly Wright could not rely on only these methods in his Usonian homes for modern America. However, he did attempt to incorporate lighting as indirectly and smoothly as he could. First of all, he used large panels of open glass and clerestory windows whenever possible. Additionally, the fireplace, another essential element of the Usonian
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house, provided light and warmth during the evening. For required artificial light after sunset, instead of the heavy, obvious light fixtures in the center of the ceiling of typical Western houses, he relied on smaller, soft lighting elements incorporated into the structural lines of the house. He concealed the actual fixtures and aimed them to reflect off of the ceilings and walls to provide an unobtrusive light mimicking diffused sunlight.47

Figure 32: This Japanese tatami room is bathed in soft lighting that seeps through the shoji screens and indirect lighting from hidden sources overhead.

Figure 33: The Brandes House interior, Sammamish, Washington, 1952 The living space of this Usonian house is lit by banks of windows as well as concealed fixtures from above that blend into the structure of the room.

Wrights final touch in completely wedding the house with the surroundings lay in his use of materials. In many of his homes, he completely prohibited the use of steel. While he used concrete and brick as needed, he truly loved stone, glass, and wood above all. In his 1928 essays entitled The Meaning of Materials, he wrote:

47

Maddex, 73.

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Wood is universally beautifully to man. And yet, among higher civilizations, the Japanese understood it best.No Western peoples ever used wood with such understanding as the Japanese did in their constructionwhere wood always came up and came out as nobly beautiful.48 Wright wrote of wood and natures materials with an almost religious reverence, describing himself as a servant of nature. He persistently used natural materials in all of his houses, especially his Usonian houses which embodied his personal architectural theories for America. Although he failed to include Japan as a higher civilization, such writings and actions revealed an attitude of thorough respect and understanding for the Japanese spiritual characteristics manifested in architecture.

Figure 34: This traditional Japanese home of wood, stone, and thatch blends easily into the natural landscape.

Figure 35: Friedman House, Pleasantville, New York, 1948 Wright religiously used the natural materials of wood and stone to unify his Usonian houses with the surroundings.

48

Pfeiffer, Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings, Volume 1: 1894-1930, 277.

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3. Breaking the Box, Inside and Out

Figure 36: For centuries, Japanese architecture has been based around the standard module of the 90 x 180 cm tatami mat that allows for a flexible and efficient floor plan.

Figure 37: Palmer House, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1950 The floor plan of this unusual Usonian home reveals Wrights playfulness with various modules for his houses. The triangular base for this home allows for easy yet unique construction.

At the time of the Usonian house, the typical plan for the American home, particularly the mass-produced American home, consisted of a rectangle with rectangular interior rooms. This concept disgusted Wright. He believed in building a house from the inside out, placing rooms as needed and then allowing this created interior space to dictate the exterior. He removed the bound box as the determinant for the overall floor plan of the house, the individual room shape, and the structural module. This idea, revolutionary to American architecture at the time, had already been in practice for ages in the Japanese home.

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The Japanese house consistently implemented a fluid floor plan, with rooms that could be moved around as needed. They typically did not fit into a single neat rectangle, but produced a plan with rooms jutting out to the side as needed.49 The focus is on the desired layout of the rooms rather than a dictated space in which to enclosing them. Likewise, Wrights Usonian houses opened in a variety of manners according to the landscape and the appropriate interior spaces. He arranged the interior spaces on a grid, allowing them to freely extend where needed. In keeping with the flexibility of the floor plan, both the Usonian house and Japanese house opened up their interior spaces as well. Due to the shoji screens used as dividers in the Japanese house, rooms could be freely blended to create spaces of any size. Wright simply eliminated divisions in interior spaces altogether. He combined the living and dining areas into one large space, and often allowed the kitchen or entryway to flow into the space as well. Additionally, both the Japanese and Usonian houses opened into the outside garden space through the use of shoji screens and glass panels respectively. In order to accommodate this type of construction and remain reasonably affordable, Wright used a basic structural module to build his houses. Using a smaller module allowed Wright the cost efficiency of mass production as well as the flexibility of a building block. While this building block frequently did take a block shape, it was not limited to that form. The plan of the Palmer House in Ann Arbor, Michigan, relied on a triangular building module, while the Hanna House in Palo Alto, California, consisted of a hexagonal design.50

49 50

Ishimoto, 36. Lind, 22, 37.

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This modular conceptualization, while somewhat innovative to American design, arises from Japanese construction. Most Japanese architectural spaces have been and still are measured in terms of tatami mats. Approximately 90 by 180 centimeters, these soft, clean, airy floor modules have standardized Japanese room and house sizes for centuries.51 While Wright varied the shape of his module from house to house, the basic concept arose from the tatami mat, a distinctively Japanese architectural element. 4. Aesthetic Simplicity

Figure 38: Decoration in the interior of Japanese homes is contained to the aesthetically conscious structure of the wooden supports, along with traditional paintings on the fusuma panels.

Figure 39: The Johnson House, Oberlin, Ohio, 1950 Wright allowed only simple ornamentation in his Usonian houses, intent on expressing the beauty of the structural lines and intersections. Only minimal artistic additions graced his homes, such as this artfully chosen floor rug.
51

Black, 8.

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While a commitment to simplicity directed the decor of both the Usonian and Japanese homes, these buildings were by no means plain. The structure of the houses absorbed the decoration, allowing them to be innately beautiful and therefore requiring no additional ornamentation or furnishings. Not only did this save money for the inhabitants, but it supported the belief in the holiness of simplicity and naturalness. Traditional Japanese houses, in and of themselves, pay homage to the arts. The structural composition and lines are aesthetically conscious, with great consideration given to details such as the wooden ribbing on the doors or walls, the careful bordering of each opening in a division, and the precise geometric construction of every face of the room. Furthermore, the fusuma, or wooden sliding screens, often sported beautifully painted murals, while wooden panels above the fusuma occasionally contained wooden cutouts of animals, plants, or shapes.52 Furniture was kept to a minimum, as shelves and closets were built into the home, usually tucked away so as to remain flush with the wall. Futons for sleeping and cushions for sitting were kept in the closets until needed. Occasional furnishings could be found, but overall the interior decoration was extremely restrained so as to focus on the natural beauty of the outside garden framed by exquisitely arranged screens. Wright adopted many of the same ideas in his Usonian house, focusing on the structural beauty of the home rather than relying on outside ornamentation. He emphasized the structural lines of the house as an aesthetic focal point rather than concealing the structure with siding and placing decoration on top of the siding. He included ornament within the structural components of the house, using carved panels of
52

Black, 50.

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wood and delicate intersections of materials. He too streamlined the room and framed the windows to rely on the natural and dynamic portrait of the outside garden as opposed to hanging pictures on a wall. He built seating and shelves into the room and designed furniture specifically for the house, removing the need for furnishing efforts. Whether out of respect for architectural purity or a conviction of his own artistic superiority, Wright refused to allow decorative additions to his homes that did not correspond with the spirit of the house. None of his Usonian houses would be subject to the muddled mess he believed of contemporary European-inspired homes with their furniture and fixtures everywherefurniture and fixtures, then again more furniture and more fixtures with touches of deciduous bric-a-brac to give an excuse for still more furniture and stupid ornamentation.53 No, Japanese structural simplicity would guide the organization of his homes. While Wright never gave true credit to the Japanese architectural tradition, his Usonian houses exist as tributes to their ideals of harmony, naturalness, and simplicity. The Usonian house follows directly in the footsteps of the Japanese home from the very entranceway, to its unfolding within, to the materials of composition, and finally to the outward expression of those materials. In concept and in practice the Usonian house wholly mirrors the traditional Japanese home.

53

Pfeiffer, Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings, Volume 1: 1894-1930, 30.

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Conclusion: An Architecture for Our Own Changed Life Conditions

Figure 40: Ise Jingu Shrine, Mie, Japan, 685 This Shinto shrine to the sun goddess Amaterasu is rebuilt every twenty years to mirror the Shinto beliefs of death and rebirth, as well as to pass along spiritually based architectural practices.

In the Mie prefecture of Japan stands one of the oldest examples of Japanese architecture. Initially built in 685 CE, the Ise Jingu shrine has regularly pays homage to ancient Shinto beliefs. Every twenty years, the shrine is rebuilt, almost exactly mirroring its original construction. Thus the shrine actively displays the Shinto values of the natural life cycle of death and regeneration.54 Additionally, this practice allows architects to pass along traditional building values throughout the years, which can be utilized with modern building capabilities. Japanese architectural values were not meant to be timespecific, but to be regularly reborn in new eras with new manifestations, and great pains have been taken to ensure this rebirth.

54

Tange, Kenzo and Noboru Kawazoe, Ise: Prototype of Japanese Architecture, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1965, 14.

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The ancient Shinto beliefs in naturalness and simplicity guided Wrights architecture in the twentieth century just as it had guided Japanese architecture for centuries before. These ideals were manifested in very similar ways in both the traditional Japanese home and the Usonian house. First of all, both houses focused on becoming experiences for their dwellers, guiding them into and throughout the house by emphasizing the entranceway. Inside the house, there was a continuous effort to bring the outside in, through the use of natural materials and lighting, a central garden, and open screens to allow in more natural light and scenery. These innovative openings instead of conventional Western walls and windows allowed Wright and the Japanese architects to reorganize the home in a free and flexible form instead of the customary box. Finally, both houses embraced decoration already built into the structure of the house rather than tacking on additional ornamentation. While the Usonian house exhibited a number of modern concessions in order to serve twentieth-century Americans, it still revealed many similarities with the Japanese home in practice as well as in principle. Wrights imitation of specific architectural elements of the Japanese home is debatable. However, his adoption of Japanese architectural theories is certain, and as seen through a comparison of his Usonian house with the Japanese house, these theories translated similarly in both homes. The Japanese aesthetic is timeless, not a trend or a fad in architecture, but a way of life that will never age or expire, rooted in one of humanitys oldest religions. Wright simply embraced these ideals and updated them for modern architecture. He declared, I came to Japan to show how an organic expression of the ancient spirit of architecture was possible in new terms in modern times.55 This is the

55

Pfeiffer, Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings, Volume 1: 1894-1930, 162.

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essence of the Usonian housea modern reincarnation of the Japanese home to serve nature and the everyday human. Whether the Japanese influence was intentional or not, Wright himself confirmed that traditional Japanese theories of architecture can be utilized in modern times to create beautiful and affordable organic architecture. As cultures grow and change, new architecture becomes necessary. A purely traditional Japanese home would not be practical in modern America. However, the same ideals that drove the early Japanese home and then the Usonian house of the 1900s can inspire beautiful, organic, efficient, affordable architecture today and in any age. In discussing the Japanese approach to architecture, Wright asserted, We too must create an architecture for our own changed life conditions.56 It is not up to the architect to copy the products of the past, but to allow the time-tested principles of the past to guide appropriate architectural products for the present. This is what the Japanese did, what Frank Lloyd Wright did, and what must be done today.

56

Pfeiffer, Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings, Volume 1: 1894-1930, 78.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Works Cited:

Black, Alexandra. The Japanese House: Architecture and Interiors. Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 2000. Bryant, Anthony J. Shinden-Zukuri Estates of the Heian Period. 2001. (7 April 2008). <http://www.sengokudaimyo.com/shinden/Shinden.html>. Ishimoto, Tatsuo and Kiyoko. The Japanese House: Its Interior and Exterior. New York: Bonanza Books, 1963. Itoh, Teiji. The Classic Tradition in Japanese Architecture: Modern Versions of the Sukiya Style. New York: Weatherhill, 1972. James, Cary. The Imperial Hotel: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Architecture of Unity. Rutland: Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc., 1968. Kasulis, Thomas P. Shinto: The Way Home. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004. Lind, Carla. Frank Lloyd Wrights Usonian Houses. San Francisco: Pomegranate Artbooks, 1994. Maddex, Diane. Wright-Sized Houses: Frank Lloyd Wrights Solutions for Making Small Houses Feel Big. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2003. Nute, Kevin. Frank Lloyd Wright and Japan. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1993. Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks, Ed. Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings, Volume 1: 18941930. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1992. Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks, Ed. Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings, Volume 4: 19391949. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1994. Sergeant, John. Frank Lloyd Wrights Usonian Houses: The Case for Organic Architecture. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1976. Wright, Olgivanna Lloyd. Frank Lloyd Wright: His Life, His Work, His Words. New York: Horizon Press, 1966.

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Images:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. http://www.bolender.com/Frank%20Lloyd%20Wright/Frank%20Lloyd%20Wright.htm http://www.delmars.com/flwtrip/pope1a.htm http://pruned.blogspot.com/2006/02/encyclopedia-retrofuturologica.html http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/FLW_usonian.html http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CLASS/am483_95/projects/wright/uson.html http://www.delmars.com/flwtrip/pope1a.htm http://www.delmars.com/flwtrip/pope2a.htm http://www.northeastjournal.com/LeadingStories/aug06/zimmerman.html http://thelivesandtimes.blogspot.com/2007/08/ellis-feiman-house-one-of-frank-lloyd.html http://www.oar.uiuc.edu/future/campuslife/photos/japanhouse.html http://www.oar.uiuc.edu/future/campuslife/photos/japanhouse.html http://www.answers.com/topic/rosenbaum-house http://japanesecarpentry.com/info.htm http://www.geishawalk.com/8 http://housing.cnfj.navy.mil/off_base_rentals.htm http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/1893fair.html http://www.oberlin.edu/amam/flwright.html http://www.gamblehouse.org/history/index.html http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/links/jlwright/lloyd_wright5.html http://www.sengokudaimyo.com/shinden/Shinden.html http://www.planetclaire.org/fllw/ih.html http://www.ukiyoe-gallery.com/detail-c870.htm http://www.peterbeers.net/interests/flw_rt/Michigan/Goetsch_Winckler_House/goetschwinckler_house.htm http://www.kayaprajna.com/gateway/fareast.html http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/kentuckknob/index.htm http://www.bridgewater.edu/~dhuffman/soc306/I98grp9/ http://www.e-architect.co.uk/boston/new_england_buildings.htm http://www.jupiterimages.com/popup2.aspx?navigationSubType=itemdetails&itemID=23 286239 http://www.galenfrysinger.com/iowa_cedar_rock.htm http://www.japonia.org.pl/tradycyjne-japonskie-wnetrze-mieszkalne-gra-swiatla-i-cienia http://www.flickr.com/photos/lyndonwong/406953479/ http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/secondary/languages/ japanese/nihongocentre/facilities/facilities.htm http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2007/01/ http://www.onelifejapan.com/tours/thatch_roof_volunteer.html http://www.americanpopularculture.com/journal/articles/fall_2004/hellman.htm http://www.kippo.or.jp/culture_e/build/measure.htm http://www.emis.de/journals/NNJ/conferences/N1998-Eaton.html http://www.ikkyuji.org/keidai_annai/houjou/houjou.html http://www.worldandi.com/subscribers/feature_detail.asp?num=24985 http://witcombe.sbc.edu/sacredplaces/ise.html

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PART II

The Creation of a Modern Japanese-Usonian Hybrid: Time-Tested Values in Todays Architecture

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House Description
The following images and explanations describe a house designed for twenty-first century America, using the influence and ingenuity of the Usonian house and the Japanese home. It is intended to be an affordable, organic accommodation for the average, middle class American citizen. The common elements between the Japanese and Usonian houses that were outlined in the previous section provided the basis for the design. A variety of unique aspects of the Usonian and Japanese houses were also selected for inclusion in the design, as well as several additional elements to update the house to todays modern standards. This small home of only 792 square feet can comfortably house a family of four. While built with attention to directional orientation, the home can be easily altered to accommodate a number of locations. Costs were cut wherever possible, such as in the amount of space and materials used; however, the type of materials and use of space were valued. The focus lies in quality, not quantity, and in a strong relationship between the house and the surroundings. This home is intended to connect the inhabitants with the environment rather than shield them from it.

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Japanese elements: Bathhouse: The house includes a proportionally large bathhouse with a Japanese style tub and open shower. Toilets are emphasized less and given only an essential amount of space. Sliding panels: The bedrooms can be divided from the rest of the house using sliding panels that directly mirror the Japanese fusuma panels. They can be left open as well to provide for an even more open floor plan and communal space. Screens: The large banks of windows on the front and back of the house can be shielded using translucent screens similar to Japanese shoji screens. Exposed wooden structure: The wooden structure of the roof and joints are exposed and emphasized in expressively honest architecture. Tatami: Synthetic tatami mats are to be used on the floor of the house in all of the rooms except for the bathhouse. This mat can be easily cleaned and muffles sound. Closets: Proportionally large closets built into the wall, as used in Japanese homes to store futons, will be used to preserve the living space and allow for more storage. Usonian elements: Carport: Instead of the more expensive garage, the house includes simpler carport. Hearth: A central fireplace unites the living space and emphasizes communality. Compression/release: As one enters the house, they must step up into a compressed space of only seven feet and must walk through a short hallway
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before the height increases both from raising the ceiling and lowering the floor. This makes the small house feel much larger inside. Roof: Different sections of the house are given different levels according to their function, as well as to improve overhead natural light. Lighting: Natural light is utilized wherever possible, but when needed, indirect lighting shines from the sides of the beams to bounce off the ceiling and provide a softer glow. Heating: Pipes embedded in the foundation below the house contain hot water to quietly and efficiently heat the house from the floor. Combined elements An experience beginning at the entrance: The pathway to the house includes a stone walkway surrounded by greenery winding from either the street or carport to encourage one to slowly and appreciatively enter the home. Once inside the house, the inhabitant must move through a walkway that gradually opens up into the main living space. Bringing the outside in: Wood and stone were incorporated wherever possible to give the home a natural, organic feel. Large panels of glass open up the home and allow for increased ventilation. Breaking the box inside and out: The house is designed on a grid of essentially six 12x12 squares. The windows are composed of 2 panels of glass, and the siding is 2 panels of wood. Rather than enclose the house in one small box, it spreads where needed to provide optimum light and shade to the various parts of the home.

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Aesthetic simplicity: Clean lines compose the home, and the natural support and structure is emphasized as the beauty of the house.

Additional elements: Steel support: Modern steel supports are to be used within the structure. Wright refused to incorporate steel supports into his homes, as he felt that it detracted from the honesty of the material expression, but many of his builders added them as needed without his knowledge. Large kitchen: Both Usonian houses and Japanese houses deemphasized the kitchen, considering it merely a place for necessary work. This modern home will include a larger, more open kitchen for leisurely cooking.

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Model Pictures

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57

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Model Drawings
Elevations

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Floor Plan

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Interior Perspective

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