Article about Structural Genius from Nanyodo Bookshop Tokyo

Article from NANYODO Bookshop

「伝統住居の継承」について考えさせられる本が2冊、入荷致しました！
「丗 SEI／徳田邸 - 京都　生きる喜び」https://bit.ly/34mkYBH では、京都の築100年を超える町家の改修「徳田邸」を写真・図面・テキストで紹介。改修を任された西沢立衛氏は、先人が遺したディテール（工夫）の痕跡について思いを巡らせます。そして、インドネシア・ニアス島の伝統住居を丹念に調査した「Structural Genius」https://bit.ly/3m6tBGy 。構造やプランだけでなく、住居がコミュニティ形成に果たす役割についても考察しています。

In our modern society, we have been obsessed with steady improvement and perfection since our modern era has started. As a result, many architects have been working hard to realize their ideas based on their clients life style that they can live efficiently.

On the other hand, the traditional houses have a bigger challenge to respond to changes in times. There are two new published books introducing different approaches. The first one is "Structural Genius" a research book written by the Indonesian architects, Fani Atmanti and Dini Aiko. They report about Nias Island in Indonesia, where are remains of traditional wooden houses called Omo Hada which design influenced by a ship structure. They have completely adapted to the environment, included religion and their community. Nevertheless many villagers try to modernize their life with changing the intended meaning of the old rooms. The village in the book became a tourist attraction thus the villagers have to take the middle of the tradition and the updating.

The second, "SEI | Tokuda House Kyoto Joy of Life" is showing us that the traditional building have a potential to be passed down in various ways and still remain in the next generation. The architect Ryue Nishizawa who renovated the Tokuda house and confronted the Japanese tradition said :
“I learned a great deal from working on a machiya, which is a cornucopia of details cleverly crafted by many artisans. I never tire of admiring the streetscapes of Kyoto and the substantial details of each building - all traces of human thought and cleverness.”

Both books makes us think about our ancestors who lived fully cherishing their own values. That lead us to the question, what kind of values should we have in the world when dealing in the midst of uncertainty about the future?

credit photo : NANYODO BOOKSHOP