REACTION TO; Tokyo, the Impermanent Capital, from “A Lateral View.”

One of my biggest misconceptions about Japanese society is their emphasis on how impermanent and un attached they are to their buildings. Japanese culture has spanned most of the last two thousand years and I previously thought that a major role in this successful emperor was monumental long lasting structures. I was wrong. The building methods by the Japanese have changed but the mentality behind them hasn’t. Only slightly changing recently Japanese has separated its ideology in respect to architecture and engineering and kept it much separate from the west. In the west buildings are often idolized and regarded as monumental creations of mans power. Largely due to how long they have lasted, how big and fortified they are, and how expensive they are. They ideas are hardly found in Japanese society, modernarity is slightly changing this. Not to say Japanese building aren’t monumental. In Japanese culture it seems often the most regarded objects are small and very delicate, were the artists hand has almost been completely removed. I believe we see a similar idea in the monumentality of Tokyo’s architecture.
The article talks about how Tokyo has no order in its creation, any plan or grid. The author says this is what makes Tokyo so special. This ability to be so scrambled but work so efficiently is beautiful and in many was organic. I agree with the author about Tokyo’s repitition being in opposition to order and guidelines. Humanism becomes a large aspect of the building types of Tokyo. Property is very expensive and apartments have limited space. Because of limited space most apartment have balconies. This translates into repetition of building style. There are so many buildings with balconies. This linear repetition of balconies becomes the only come characteristic relating one building to the next. The repetition of linear lines starting and stopping becomes endless and is seen through out the city. This repetition becomes very organic almost like branches of a tree. Their aren’t any forest were each tree is identical but it obvious that you are in a forest.

Hstormes