The main aim of this essay is to analyze and understand what critical regionalism is and why it is important to think in that way especially today and also to analyze the architect Tadao Ando and his building 4×4 House, as well as his architecture.
To begin with, the word ‘regionalism’ in dictionaries is characterized as ‘’a speech form, expression, custom, or other feature peculiar to or characteristic of a particular area’’ . Ever, regionalism is a showed idea since the seasons of the Romans. The Romantics further propounded beautiful regionalism amid the nineteenth and mid twentieth century. Also, in international relations regionalism is one of the three constituents of the universal business framework (alongside multilateralism and unilateralism). Critical regionalism is a technique to connect the architecture that endeavors to counter the placelessness with the absence of character of the International Style. Furthermore, it rejects the eccentric independence and decoration of postmodern design. Many people claimed that regionalism is just regionalism in the sentiment of vernacular architecture, but this is not correct. Basic regionalism is an energetic way to agreement with outline that looks to intercede/mediate between the universal and the nearly dialects of architecture. Initially, in the mid-1980s, critical regionalism was began as a design idea in exposition by Alexander Tzonis, Liane Lefaivre and, accordingly, Kenneth Frampton. Tzonis and Lefaivre began the term 'Critical Regionalism' to manage a present issue: the need to characterize a part for structures and urban communities in a planet that is by all accounts joined just by the media and 'globalization', and isolated by showdown and rivalry. In this part, originators whether taking care of issues or investigating conceivable outcomes, ought to think fundamentally (in the Kantian sense). They ought to overcome inclinations favoring transported in or nearby decisions through addressing and reflection, considering the specifics of the genuine circumstance, the area. The center inquiry which emerges is "how to become modern and to come back to sources? ". Tzonis and Lefaivre according to Greek’s design, they describe the term 'critical regionalism' as the third and most recent kind of regionalism, after the English beautiful of "patriot regionalism," and the Neoclassical "historicist regionalism." Both pretended that nowadays architecture is very general and blocky, destroy the humanistic qualities in compositional expression which would be reestablished by another type of regionalism (Tzonis and Lefaivre, 1981).
I have chosen to analyze the architect Tadao Ando because I have always admired the way he designed and handled/used the concrete. Now I have the opportunity to analyze in more depth his way of thinking and his architecture. Additionally, I have chosen the building 4×4 House because I think that is one of the most powerful works of Tadao Ando, in which even the region there beautifies the overall design and pays attention to it. Subsequently, I am going to analyze the background-country-culture of Tadao Ando and explain how he used that in his architecture and in that particular building, to understand why he was a critical regionalist.
This essay therefore argues that critical regionalism should be understood from this generation because globalization today has started to extinguish some basic points of the history of each place. This argument will be illustrated by analyzing Tadao Ando’s background and history to find out from where he begins and why he is a critical regionalist.
Tadao Ando is one of the most famous architects that strongly has critical regionalism in their architecture. He was born in Japan (Osaka). The first jobs that he did in his life was a truck driver and boxer. His main inspiration was the Frank Lloyd Wright that made him to start following architecture. So 2 years after his graduation from high school, he ended his boxing career. He started to attend drawing classes, interior design courses and explore buildings from popular architects before going back to his country, where he opened his own studio for the first time.
Japan greatly influenced his later architecture. Japan is located in East Asia, in the Pacific Ocean. The name of Japan in Japanese language is Nippon and Nihon that means "the sun's origin", rendered as ''the land of the rising sun''. This name refers to Japan's eastern position relational to China (the sun rises from Japan). Japanese society has grown enormously from its starting points. Contemporary society blends impacts from Asia, Europe and North America. Customary Japanese expressions incorporate specialties: earthenware production, materials, lacquer ware, swords and dolls, exhibitions of bunraku, move and different practices, the tea function, hand to hand fighting, calligraphy and amusements. Japan’s climate is predominantly mild, although varies greatly from north to south. In the Sea of Japan, northwest winter winds bring substantial snowfall. The district in summer is cooler than the Pacific territory, however it at times encounters amazingly hot temperatures in light of the foehn wind.
Between 1970s-80s, unfortunately Japanese architecture was produced as a snappy impersonation of some indistinguishable "universal style" and a "disneyfication" of Japanese urban communities covered without eccentric design. Endeavors to be innovative were effortlessly obscured by bowdlerized thoughts from pre-WWII period, as Japanese architects are lost in deciphering Western stylish structures for a Japanese state. On that period, numerous Japanese architects battle to find out an identity for them in an inexorably homogeneous world.
A similar battle is obvious toward the start of Tadao Ando's road for architecture as he looks to accommodate parts of current development with parts of Japanese culture. As I mentioned before, his trips to the West especially, teach him widely on the precedents of 'modern masters'. But the main fact to find his identity was the wabi-sabi from his mother country (Osaka). Wabi-sabi is a rigorous adherence to the qualities of simplicity, modesty and poverty, in direct resistance to the unrefined pretention of wealth, comes from Japanese’s aesthetic tradition. Some characteristics of the wabi-sabi stylish incorporate asymmetry, harshness (unpleasantness or inconsistency), effortlessness, economy, somberness, humility, closeness, and energy about the straightforward uprightness of common protests and procedures. This way of thinking/idea made Tadao Ando a critical regionalist.
Furthermore, a few subjects identified with wabi-sabi could be distinguished in Ando's project: light, covering spaces and materials. He always used the wind and light to give an idea that nature is never far, is living in all the places. Every used area in Ando's projects are epitomized by light inside murkiness. Normal components among Ando works are their reflective smoothness and duskiness. Then again, the delicate excellence of shadows that denoted the Japanese’s identity, are used by Ando to imbue his structures with an uncanny inclination which improve the void with haziness. He was also taking seriously the spatial enclosure in his architecture. Despite the fact that set in an urban situation, in genuine soul of wabi-sabi, Ando's designs take a stab at the disposition of a mountain retreat. His designs are frequently depicted as an 'encased world, stop from the outside environment'. It closed out the outside world yet presents nature, in typical structure. The typical representation of nature is a noteworthy articulation of wabi-sabi tasteful, and is predominant in all Japanese workmanship. Subsequently, spaces which cover and metaphorically crease in on each other add profundity and lavishness to the piece and invigorate energy and desire in the individual encountering the space. The impact is achievable through the way to deal with the building.
Moving on to materials, Tadao Ando is using natural materials such as concrete or wood and he is doing the best to make them look more natural. The unfinished concrete in contrast with the natural materials of wooden floors and furnishings, is a strong characteristic of Tadao Ando's designs. Almost all of his buildings are monochrome both internally and externally, using mostly drab gray, which comes from the culture / architecture of Japan. Lots of his projects make utilization of light, nature and water itself to rise above the standard furthest reaches of architecture.
Generally, Tadao has created connections between East and West, ancient tradition and modernity, nature and the build environment and between this world with the previous world. Before designing any building, he makes sure that he has explored and well known not only the built environment but also how nature reacts to the specific area/district.
The building that I will analyze subsequently is the 4×4 House in Kobe, Hyogo. It’s a private residence and I believe that it reflects the strong ability of Tadao Ando to design small structures with powerful geometric simplicity.
The house is only 23 square meters and it has an awesome beachfront site. It is a small tower with 4 floors, 4×4 meters every floor. Every single floor is a different area. On the ground floor is the entrance and a toilet, on the second floor a bedroom, on the third floor a study area and on the fourth floor a kitchen and a living room. The fourth level is planned on the same framework yet the volume is moved out one meter toward the ocean. The house is located few kilometers away from the Awaji Island epicenter of the 1995 great Hanshin earthquake that depopulated Kobe. About this project Tadao Ando said that: “The landscape framed within this cube is a panorama sweeping over the Inland Sea, the Awaji Island and the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge where thoughts and memories of the earthquake are embedded, for both the client who makes a living in this region as well as for myself” . And again Tadao is proving that he is taking very seriously the history of the site and the nature around it to design something that is going to make a link with all of them together. It is pushes a geometric grid-based architecture just about to its coherent breaking points, yet here as in different structures composed by him, the structure is penetrated with a certain feeling of nature through the perspectives of the Inland Sea, the tremendous suspension span and the epicenter of the earthquake. Εven this very small house that he has designed, implemented beautifully with the rest of the landscape and shows once again the miracles that Ando could do. He is always doing his own evolution and that’s why many people have described his architecture as “Land Art”. Because every detail that he is drawing has a connection with the nature and the land, the past and the today. This project is also reminds Japanese houses that they are capitalizing on moderately restricted space. Living spaces are stacked underneath while the most stupendous open perspectives are saved for the upper level. So again here the fourth floor is having a relation with Japanese’s architecture and the background of Tadao Ando. Here he is using the materials, wood and concrete, to make a contrast with the ocean and the sky. Moreover, he added big glazed walls to the building to offer a breathtaking scenery and to highlight the historic monuments around the site. The architect in order to bring within the space light and let it grow high level in the space, he used minimal furnishing based on Japanese aesthetics and simplicity, so the light could enter nicely into every level of the tower. This building is more like a monument and a watchtower that has a direct connection with the site and its recent history. It proves very clearly why Ando is a critical regionalist.
There is a theory that argues that the evolution of man has already separated in two different paths: the modern westernized man evolves having high technology as a direct extension of the body and the everyday life, and the human remains in developing countries in conditions and culture no different from previous generations. So the same happen with the globalization today, it separated the contemporary architecture from the old. The modern buildings will be alien, in any environment or the old buildings will be alien next to the contemporary buildings. I strongly believe that architecture and critical regionalism together should do the first step to make again the connection between the new and the old. Since globalization is an integral part of modern society, the architect must invade in that purpose. Following a strong architecture that it is based on critical regionalism we can achieve not only a better structured environment for the next generations but also a powerful attachment with the earth and the buildings. We could also deal the climate change that is affecting us today with using the way of thinking while designing. The concept of relationship bonds at the administrative level still remains a key condition for peace. So the architect could operate in a symbolic way toward this direction to resurfacing the character of every area.