BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and DesignCULTURAL CONTEXT 01 (CARC 4005 / CIAD 4005) 2013-14Term 1 : HouseUnit Leader: Allan Atlee

Miyata Residence Hiromi Fujii Architects & associates

Most homes all share similar convivial and ideologies. They also usually stand for architectural values such as: solidity, security, happiness, progressiveness,and quality of life. Whilst none of them follow the exact same lay out pattern, due to culture, the different types of environment they are situated in they do however most buildings we call “house” all have lookalike archetype similarities in their own language.In this review I will explore the concept of a house as an architectural discourse in which convivial values and ideologies are discreetly perpetuated in the 2-storied house building, built in 1989, called The Miyata Residence.It is said in the GA houses 14 special issues residential Architecture 14 Japanese Part II, that Architecture has always refused its environment by creating a timeless world within, it is timeless as it always show and refers back to constant values such as its geometry, structure, form and shape. That wasused during its construction time.What I deduced from the GA 49 book was that the architect wanted to put his synthesis principles in practice. We can clearly see this by looking and understanding from his previous work prior to The Miyata Residence, like the Todoriki residence, a minimalistic piling up of cubic volumes developed from a series of cubic foundation that he liked working with his square like entities, as in turn, it shows that the independent, self-supporting manifestation of the building, doesn’t require an immediate interpretation of the outer look but demands a search for the inner values as that particular book would say, this is such because, Hiromi Fujii liked and enjoyed working with the understanding of “ahistorical analysis”, which,” proves that constant values as “Timelessness” and “geometry” are to be understood as a synthesis between the Avant guard of the past and the maniera moderna of the future”.

Constructed with a lead time of three years, one of which was the construction period and the other following two years, for adjustments, tailored to the customer desired taste and needs. The two-story Miyata

residence design dose stands out from other homes you would typically see, due to the fact that the architect really wanted to shape this house to the client’s needs.He adopted a more dynamic approach to his style which can be seen as an evolving design idea all through his

work up until this construction. Referring back to two extracts of the GA Houses 14 handbook where it states that “the contemporary architects are tempted to amputate historical forms in order to turn them into new projects” and “the new ideas are fashion and some architectural magazines are eager to publish them because they’re more interested in the outlook than the content. I can say that Hiromi Fujii wanted to contribute to the history of architecture. As he go against all perseverance in re-establishing thelost architectural values of architectural history. His designs are modern and somewhat minimalistic (See pictures below)

Todoroki Residence(1974) Chiba, Jap an ( left)

Miyajima Residence (1973) Tokyo, Ja pan(right)

Inside the Myiata house, just like any other common homes, you will find the necessities to live a convivial life. Here I have selected a random Scottish 3 Bedroom Semi Detached House situated in Darlington, designed by Tees Valley Housing associates to compare it against. Fujii claims that his house has an ordinary plan which has no particular character, putting the two plans side by side I analyzed that I can agree with him, they both share similar ideologies

First of all one of the ideology that they faintly share is the function of the front of house room . The front room is usually the living room as it is normallythe place where you entertain and show off the splendor of your home hence why most homes are planned and designed to welcome guests as warmly as possible as soon as they walk in they are welcomed into a some sort of hall/foyer which in turn opens into an open plan living room, Dining room and preferably with a sneaky preview of the garden. This is done by placing the open plan Living Room At the full front of the house. For more reserved family that don’t like having one of the most communal space on display whenever the front door is open, you will usually find that room in line with the front door.This layout is present in this modern semidetached house, in a way standing for architectural value of quality of life.In contrary, The Myiata house which in this scenario is not orientated to neitherentertain nor showing off wealth but to priorities the customers’ future planes of opening a drug store. However in a way it is promoting what type of knowledgeor if we may say wealth that house is valorizing, standing for architectural value of progressiveness.

The Kitchen and the

With this design Hiromi really did come out of the classic home Typography,first of for example the façade of the building, does not look like classicarchetype of a house but moor of a plain standalone box type shop This is related back to his philosophy “the building, doesn’t require an immediate interpretation of the outer look but demands a search for the inert values”, as by looking into the residence we can clearly see that a family could happily livethere.I have a feeling that the family Entered and exited the house using the back door which when entered gives on to the dining area, again this ideology is seenin the semidetached house where the dining area is also found at the back of the house thus ameliorating there quality of life by giving a pleasant and enjoyable social moment whilst practicing the task of dining, ameliorating there quality oflife.Right next to the dining area in both houses can be found the kitchen. The reasonbehind the ergonomics of this lay out is to facilitate and minimize the distance travels

However It dose mention (GA houses 14) that he did concentrate on the form of architecture

Bibliography listinghttp://www.fujiiarchstudio.com/works_hiromi.htmlGA houses 14 special issues residential Architecture 14 Japanese Part II http://www.thedhaus.com/architecture/dhaus/dynamichttp://www.woodlandviewdarlington.co.uk/properties/3-bed-semi-detached-02/

Miyajima Residence (1973) Tokyo, Japan

Todoroki Residence(1974) Chiba, Japan

Mochida Building(1979) Tokyo, Japan

Stonborough House