Koshino House, near Ashiya, 1979-81; 1983-84
1. The house is commissioned by fashion designer Ayako Koshino.
2. It is situated in Ashiya, a small town located between two major cities in Japan. It is built in a on a densely wooded mountainside, with the house partially embedded in the slope. Placed carefully as to not disrupt the pre-existing trees on the site, the structure responds to the adjacent ecosystem while the concrete forms address a more general nature through a playful manipulation of light.
3. The strong slope creates a dramatic entrance experience when the visitors see their feet on the roof of the house before entering. The house is organized into two parallel bodies, joined by an underground passage which define a central courtyard. The body contains a shorter living room of double height, while the longest wing houses a number of bedrooms, which face the view of the sea. The study in the form of a crescent, adjacent to the living room, was added later, in sharp contrast with the rectangular bodies.
The entire house is structured as a Japanese garden around a series of scenic background, designed to boost awareness of nature. The two big openings in the living room offer views of the steep slopes, trees and hills in the distance.
4. The extensive use of smooth concrete walls and patches of glass admits light and wind while offers a view of the garden and creates a sense of serenity and wide open spaces. The use of concrete is also due to industrialization and technological resources are easy to access in a developed country such as Japan.
5. The house owes much to Le Corbusier, Kahn, and also recalls Mies’ minimalism and suggestion that modern architecture should bring man and nature together in a higher unity. But it can also be better understood in the context of archetypal forms of temples and aesthetic reduced by Zen Buddhism
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Doshi Studio and Crafts Center - Sangath, Ahnmedabad, India, 1979-81
1. Educated outside the India , Doshi‘s constant concern was to find an architecture that would meet the urgent needs of his country, in harmony with their social and economic conditions, have relevance beyond his own life span and the present day value system, and express humility and anonymity. Sangath, his own architectual office, was a major realization of this self goal.
2. The complex was built on the periphery of Ahmedabad.
3. To pursue the exploration of the artistic, social, and humanistic dimensions of technology the complex incorporates a set of open and enclosed spaces for a variety of uses, which have in common with the essentials of sharing and respect of Indian village life. The juxtaposition of enclosed and open spaces is one of the links which makes “Sangath” a traditional building, one that receives its strength and beauty from local materials, skilled and unskilled local workmanship and local architecture values. One of the results of the reintroduction of traditional values is the outside stepped seating amphitheatre for lectures and other gatherings.
4. The dominating shapes are vaulted forms, which also were derived from a combination of local traditions, local materials and culturally prefigurated historical examples such as Indian temples and traditional Indian head-dresses. In addition, by sinking the floor in the main studio below ground level, the enclosed spaces were more dynamically interconnected inside and outside, giving the vaults a dominating presence. It is significant that vaulted forms can serve various comtemporary needs in various application, such as Louis Kahn’s Kimbell Museum. The vaults of Sangath were constructed with hollow clay tiles sandwiched into walls. This is re-used material inexpensively bought locally, and is used as the traditional technique to reduce the heat inside the builidng.
5. From his early contacts and collaboration with Le Corbusier, when the latter was building in India, Doshi learned “to observe and react to climate, to tradition, to function, to structure, to economy and to the landscape.” And from Louis I. Kahn and his architectural masterpieces in India he learned about art and architecture as the achievement of universal harmony and the articulation of spaces as a meaningful social order. But Sangath transcends earlier solutions they built in India. Similar to Frank Lloyd Wright’s studio in Taliesin West, it is based on careful considerations of local conditions and values.
6. Sangath is, in fact, a powerful architectural manifestation of an independent and original Indian architecture, creative in its rediscovery of traditional and local elements in harmony with site, people and their past.
1. The house is commissioned by fashion designer Ayako Koshino.
2. It is situated in Ashiya, a small town located between two major cities in Japan. It is built in a on a densely wooded mountainside, with the house partially embedded in the slope. Placed carefully as to not disrupt the pre-existing trees on the site, the structure responds to the adjacent ecosystem while the concrete forms address a more general nature through a playful manipulation of light.
3. The strong slope creates a dramatic entrance experience when the visitors see their feet on the roof of the house before entering. The house is organized into two parallel bodies, joined by an underground passage which define a central courtyard. The body contains a shorter living room of double height, while the longest wing houses a number of bedrooms, which face the view of the sea. The study in the form of a crescent, adjacent to the living room, was added later, in sharp contrast with the rectangular bodies.
The entire house is structured as a Japanese garden around a series of scenic background, designed to boost awareness of nature. The two big openings in the living room offer views of the steep slopes, trees and hills in the distance.
4. The extensive use of smooth concrete walls and patches of glass admits light and wind while offers a view of the garden and creates a sense of serenity and wide open spaces. The use of concrete is also due to industrialization and technological resources are easy to access in a developed country such as Japan.
5. The house owes much to Le Corbusier, Kahn, and also recalls Mies’ minimalism and suggestion that modern architecture should bring man and nature together in a higher unity. But it can also be better understood in the context of archetypal forms of temples and aesthetic reduced by Zen Buddhism
----------------------------------------------------------
Doshi Studio and Crafts Center - Sangath, Ahnmedabad, India, 1979-81
1. Educated outside the India , Doshi‘s constant concern was to find an architecture that would meet the urgent needs of his country, in harmony with their social and economic conditions, have relevance beyond his own life span and the present day value system, and express humility and anonymity. Sangath, his own architectual office, was a major realization of this self goal.
2. The complex was built on the periphery of Ahmedabad.
3. To pursue the exploration of the artistic, social, and humanistic dimensions of technology the complex incorporates a set of open and enclosed spaces for a variety of uses, which have in common with the essentials of sharing and respect of Indian village life. The juxtaposition of enclosed and open spaces is one of the links which makes “Sangath” a traditional building, one that receives its strength and beauty from local materials, skilled and unskilled local workmanship and local architecture values. One of the results of the reintroduction of traditional values is the outside stepped seating amphitheatre for lectures and other gatherings.
4. The dominating shapes are vaulted forms, which also were derived from a combination of local traditions, local materials and culturally prefigurated historical examples such as Indian temples and traditional Indian head-dresses. In addition, by sinking the floor in the main studio below ground level, the enclosed spaces were more dynamically interconnected inside and outside, giving the vaults a dominating presence. It is significant that vaulted forms can serve various comtemporary needs in various application, such as Louis Kahn’s Kimbell Museum. The vaults of Sangath were constructed with hollow clay tiles sandwiched into walls. This is re-used material inexpensively bought locally, and is used as the traditional technique to reduce the heat inside the builidng.
5. From his early contacts and collaboration with Le Corbusier, when the latter was building in India, Doshi learned “to observe and react to climate, to tradition, to function, to structure, to economy and to the landscape.” And from Louis I. Kahn and his architectural masterpieces in India he learned about art and architecture as the achievement of universal harmony and the articulation of spaces as a meaningful social order. But Sangath transcends earlier solutions they built in India. Similar to Frank Lloyd Wright’s studio in Taliesin West, it is based on careful considerations of local conditions and values.
6. Sangath is, in fact, a powerful architectural manifestation of an independent and original Indian architecture, creative in its rediscovery of traditional and local elements in harmony with site, people and their past.
