Traditional landscapes in Japan with regard to climatic, geographical, and hydrological environment

Abstract

There are many traditional landscapes in Japan. The term landscape means architecture, gardens or greenery and land use. These landscapes, which have vegetation and/or water, are very important elements to ease the rising temperature or to clean air from the urban climatological point of view. Architecture and greenery are closely related to each other as a component which consists of the inner and the outer living space, and the site planning of them must be determined from both the convenience of the users' daily life and the aesthetic aspect. Furthermore, their design and planning are conducted with regard to the climatological, geographical, hydrological and the other environmental points of view; e.g., sunshine, ventilation, windbreak, water and so forth. The following six Figures were presented to discuss the above theme: (1) Gardens and physical environment in Kyoto; (2) Types of gardens and their allocation; (3) and (4) Urbanization process of bioclimatic landscape for climatic control; (5) Environmental control of the houses in a rural district; (6) Environmental control of the houses in an urban district. The results showed that traditional wisdom is related to the site planning of landscapes to attain environmental control as well as the users' convenient space.