Engel, Heinrich – THE JAPANESE HOUSE – 1° ed., Tuttle 1964

cm. 30 x 23, 496, copertina rigida, angoli e spigoli della legatura usurati, sovraccoperta mancante, per il resto in ottime condizioni.

THIS BOOK should help to build a bridge between East and West. It is apt to alleviate the notorious presumption of Western man towards the older and deeper culture of the Orient. The author concentrates particularly on those features of the Japanese architectural tradition that strongly appeal to the modern architect of the Western world. He shows that this is not just the result of a fashionable trend toward Oriental design motifs but is based on the recognition that certain discoveries in the realm of form creation have permanent significance for all branches of human society.

In revealing the meaningful cultural aims and the high craftsmanship of Japanese domestic architecture as it evolved through the centuries and in laying bare the compelling motives that directed its development, the author never contents himself with offering a historical study only but instead brings the traditional values alive for the present. The Japanese example of the dedication of a whole nation to the task of giving form and substance to recognized spiritual values comes here as an eye-opener to all those who doubted that such unity of purpose could ever exist. Zen Buddhism, the great moving power of Japanese thought and action, succeeded in creating an identity of matter and spirit such that we can understand one only by embracing the other.

When I was so fortunate to be invited for an extensive visit to Japan in 1954, I found myself overwhelmed by a new and fundamental experience, namely, seeing, at first hand, the results of an extraordinarily consistent attempt at creating a cultural pattern so basically homogeneous, yet, at the same time, so strikingly varied and rich in its elements that it stands unchallenged among history’s most notable architectural achievements in Japanese domestic architecture. The traditional domestic architecture embodied the general principles and ideals of Japanese society in such a perfect manner that even now, in our day and age, its impact is strong and its cultural influence ubiquitous.

Of course, many of its features that seem related to our Western modern architecture have developed from entirely different premises. But our modern architectural requirements of simplicity, outdoor-indoor relation, flexibility, modular coordination and prefabrication, and most importantly, variety of expression have found such fascinating answers in the classic domestic architecture of Japan that no architect should neglect its stimulating study. For me, it held the additional surprise of discovering how closely some of the Japanese attitudes and methods of approach corresponded to certain basic convictions held at the Bauhaus in Germany, which I founded in 1919. In the Japanese house, the spiritual links between man and his house had been made apparent by a humanized technique, consistently related to both the mental and emotional needs of man. The design conception had started from the very bones of the building and not merely at its skin as a cosmetic play. Spiritual and practical requirements of living had been coordinated into an artistic approach that represents one of the most valuable contributions to a universal philosophy of architecture. This book offers the key to understanding this profound approach to design. It will interest every teacher and student of architecture and architectural history, every creative architect and designer in East and West alike. To the Western architect, it will show the missing ingredient in our own civilization, the coherent effort at attaining unity in diversity. It will make him conscious of the necessity to develop a philosophy of common purpose, able to absorb and give focus to the manifold experiments in technique and aesthetics that bewilder him today. To the Japanese architects, it will give support to their new outburst of creativity, the fruits of which must already now be considered contributions to modern architecture of the highest rank.

By WALTER GROPIUS

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