The Japanese Experience of Environmental Architecture through the Works of Bruno Taut and Antonin Raymond

Abstract

Around 1930 the Modern Movement in Architecture was widespread throughout Europe and America. The next and predictable step was the search for regions that were on the whole deprived of a firm sense of civil building procedures. To a certain extent, the tropics were such an area. Their authorities, mostly for want of social organization or techniques, welcomed the import of a new industrial system of construction which seemed efficient and unprejudiced, instead of creating their own ways from fear they might be old–fashioned. However, as modern fabrics had stemmed from temperate conditions the progress of these was hindered by unsuspected features of the tropical climate: monsoons, earthquakes and hot spells. In the present research, the authors hope to contribute to a careful examination of the designs conceived in Japan to overcome this major contradiction of modern architecture and to provide some hints for the future in Asia. This was done by using accepted scientific design methods such as computer simulation, duly tested by virtue of on–site measurements. As eminent illustrations we will discuss the works of Bruno Taut and Antonin Raymond that were subsequently extended to India or Turkey among other countries.