Sustainable Japanese architecture and landscape

AR-506 / 3 credits

Teacher: Vogel Chevroulet Irène Elizabeth

Language: English

Summary

This course focuses on the circulation of the imaginary between cultures. It shows how major Western architects, landscape designers, painters and sculptors have been inserting sustainable architectural and landscape Japanese devices and notions into their designs since the 19th century.

Content

Firstly, the course provides an introduction, by seven lectures, to the major sources of inspiration, devices, and notions that 20th c. Westerners selected when studying Japanese pre-modern architectural and landscape projects. Secondly, students (group work-individual work on request) will propose a sustainable innovation grounded in a specific Japanese source of inspiration: a device (tatami or shoji set, natural stone layout, etc.) or a notion (ma, miniaturisation, indirect light etc.), or combination of both. They may also propose a technical transposition done with other materials and manufacturing techniques.

 

Lectures on Japanese sustainable sources of inspiration followed by discussions

1 Introduction: Sustainability - Program - Architecture: history & specificities

2 Discovery, assimilation and creation: Josiah Conder opens the Way

3 Materials and built-in furniture: Charlotte Perriand

Guest speaker: Prof. Hon. Manfred Speidel Aachen Architecture School Climate and a Biological Foundation of Culture - Some observations on Bruno Taut's Architectural Theory

4 Garden types - Designing a garden

5 Gardens, landscapes, public spaces: Isamu Noguchi

6 Landscape architecture enlightening stone and wood: Dimitris Pikionis

7 Zen gardens mystification: Bernard Huet in Japan 1964 On photography - Against interpretation

 

Student work: developing a Japanese source of inspiration into a contemporary proposal

9 Preliminary proposal: max 500 words + free format illustration - choice between sketches, axonometry, perspective, collage, plans or scale model (Group work - Individual work on request)

10-11 Direct supervision by lecturer

12 Final proposal - Workshop if number of students allows it

 

Keywords

Sustainability, interculturality, innovation, architecture, garden, landscape, public space, Shinto, Zen

Learning Prerequisites

Recommended courses

Japon contemporain BA5

Contemporary Japan MA1-MA2

Important concepts to start the course

Sustainability in architecture and landscape design

Modes of use of an architectural and landscape device: citation, replica, adaptation, abstraction

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, the student must be able to:

  • Create a sustainable design based on a device or notion
  • Transpose a device or notion from a Japanese pre-modern context into a contemporary context
  • Compose traditional wood and stone devices with innovative contemporary design methods
  • Argue the viability of her/his proposal

Transversal skills

  • Demonstrate a capacity for creativity.
  • Access and evaluate appropriate sources of information.
  • Take responsibility for environmental impacts of her/ his actions and decisions.
  • Demonstrate the capacity for critical thinking

Teaching methods

Lecture and discussion + proposal supervision

Expected student activities

Students are expected to attend all lectures.

When provided, course readings must be completed before the lecture, to ensure comprehension and facilitate discussion.

Students are encouraged to prepare questions and discuss them in class after the lecture.

Students are expected to become specialists of one device or notion.

Students will write, illustrate and present a proposal for a Japanese architectural / landscape device or notion developing its potential for a sustainable project.

For the workshop - if the number of students allows it-, students will discuss their proposal.

Assessment methods

Analysis of a device or notion showing its potential for sustainability : maximum significance with minimum text and illustration. (Max 500 words illustrated in the most appropriate manner: students choose between sketches, axonometry, perspective, collage, plans or scale model)

Preliminary proposal: 50% of the grade

Final proposal: 50% of the grade

 

 

Supervision

Office hours Yes

Resources

Bibliography

These general readings are complemented by articles and other references available on the moodle for each device and notion addressed.

Deanna MacDonald: Eco living Japan Sustainable ideas for living Green Tuttle, 2015

Azby Brown: Just enough lessons from Japan for sustainable Living, Architecture and Design, Stone Bridge Press, 2022

Kazuo Nishi, Kazuo Hozumi: What is Japanese Architecture? Kodansha, 1997

William H. Coaldrake:Tools and Japanese architecture The way of the carpenter, Weatherhill. 1990

Josiah Conder: Landscape Gardening in Japan. Leyy & Walsh, 1893

Marc Treib: A Guide to the Gardens of Kyoto. Kodansha, 2018

Philippe Bonnin : Vocabulaire de la spatialité japonaise. CNRS, 2014

Benoît Jaquet : Le charpentier et l'architecte. PPUR, 2019

Irène Vogel Chevroulet La création d'une japonité moderne. EUE, 2010

 

Ressources en bibliothèque

Moodle Link

In the programs

  • Semester: Spring
  • Exam form: During the semester (summer session)
  • Subject examined: Sustainable Japanese architecture and landscape
  • Lecture: 2 Hour(s) per week x 12 weeks
  • Type: optional
  • Semester: Spring
  • Exam form: During the semester (summer session)
  • Subject examined: Sustainable Japanese architecture and landscape
  • Lecture: 2 Hour(s) per week x 12 weeks
  • Type: optional

Reference week

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