O-YOROI SAMURAI ARMOUR – BLOG II

NICHOLAS LEBLANC

3rd YEAR ARCHITECTURE STUDENT

ARMOUR IS A NECESSITY TO WAR. EVERY WARRIOR NEEDS A FORM OF PROTECTION TO DEFEND ATTACKS FROM OPPOSING ENEMIES. IT IS EVIDENT THAT JAPANESE ARTISANS HAVE PERFECTED THE ART OF DESIGNING AND CONSRTUCTING SAMURAI ARMOUR. AT FIRST GLANCE, SAMURAI ARMOURS APPEAR TO BE THE DECORATION AND ORNAMENTATION OF WAR. WITH BRIGHT STITCHING PATTERNS AND AN EXAGGERATED HELMET, A O-YOROI ARMOUR RESEMBLES MORE TO CEREMONIAL CLOTHING THAN A FORM OF PROTECTION FOR A HIGH RANKING SAMURAI WARRIOR. WHAT SEEMS TO BE EASTHETICALY PLEASING IS ACTUALLY THE RESULT OF EXCELLENT DESIGN AND ADAPTATION TO WAR. IT IS FAIR TO SAY THAT SHAPE FOLLOWS THE PROGRAM – PROTECTION OF THE WARRIOR.

FOR EXAMPLE, THE STITCHING PATTERNS FOUND ON THE MAIN ELEMENTS OF SAMURAI AMOUR INDICATE THE CLAN AND RANKING OF THAT PARTICULAR WARRIOR. IN COMBAT, THESE STITCHINGS HELP TO IDENTIFY THE WARRIOR AND THEREFORE INDICATES IF THEY ARE FRIEND OR FOE. THIS SIMPLE DETAILING MINIMIZES THE CHANCES OF A SAMURAI KILLING A WARRIOR FROM THE SAME CLAN.IN ADDITION, THE HELMET IS A PROMINENT AND ELABORATE ELEMENT OF THE O-YOROI SAMURAI ARMOUR. THE HELMET CONSISTS OF A CURVED BACK AND A CREST. BOTH ARE USED TO PROTECT THE NECK AND TOP OF HEAD BY DEFLECTING ARROWS AND SWORDS.

WITH A CLOSER LOOK, THE O-YOROI ARMOUR IS A UNIFIED ENTETY OF NUMEROUS ELEMENTS THAT EACH HAVE A SPECIFIC PURPOSE THAT COLLECTIVELY COME TOGETHER TO CREATE AN IMPENETRABLE SKIN. THIS SAMURAI ARMOUR CAN BE SEEN AS AN EARLY FORM OF MINIMALISM. EACH ELEMENT HAS A PROGRAM AND THE FORM ACCOMPLISHES THAT PROGRAM. THERE ARE NO UNNECESSARY DECORATIONS. THE O-YOROI ARMOUR AND MODERN JAPANESE MINIMALIST DESIGN HAVE MANY COMMON LINKS; THE REDUCTION, ARRANGEMENT AND SIMPLICITY OF NECESSARY ELEMENTS. THE NEED FOR ORGANIZATION AND CLARITY IS ALSO PROMINENT.

Decoration on Si Mu Wu Ding vessel

According to the analysis in blog#1, Si Mu Wu Ding vessel is one of the greatest green bronze ware in the Chinese history. The unique figures that decorate the vessel illustrate the culture belief, civilization power, and scientific discovery at the time. Si Mu Wu Ding is created for royal family usage. The emperor is using this vessel to worship his mother. Since the vessel is used by the emperor. All the decoration on the vessel must symbolize the emperor’s specialty and his power in the civilization.

The leg of the vessel is decorated with figures of ferocious animal. The animal has an angry emotion on its face. It stares at the leg of the vessel, given the feeling of fear. This is symbolizing the seriousness of the worship ceremony. The body of the vessel is decorated with cloud curve line on each edge. The lines on the top edge representing the cloud in the sky and the lines at the bottom of the edge symbolize the ground and water. The empty space in the middle represents our world. This picture demonstrates people’s understanding with the surrounding environment at that time. Local people will always stay in the middle of the space. Only the emperor can make connections with the sky and the ground. The decoration figure of two tiger eating a human head on the loop handle of the vessel interests me the most. Tiger is a powerful animal, It is the king in the animal world. In this figure the Tiger representing the highest royal power in the civilization which is hold by the emperor. The emotion of the human face between the two tiger mouth is peaceful; without any fear. This human figure represents the emperor. It means that even the tiger cannot scare the emperor; he is the real king over anything. Base on my research, this decoration is the early form of "Two dragons play ball". After Qin dynasty, Chinese believe the emperor is not just the son of the sky but the human form of a dragon. Therefore, the tiger is translated into dragon and the human figure is changed to the ball which represents the sun. Although the figure changed, it is still representing the highest power in the royal society owned by the emperor.

In conclusion, these decorations symbolize the society and time. It influence a lot of the architecture design in the Chinese history. Although the Royal emperor is no exist any more, the way of using object in the surrounding environment to symbolize the society or a person will be carry on into the modern era.

Zhaoyu Hunter Chen

Great Leshan Buddha; Part Two

As stated in my previous blog, I had explored the massive statue of the Great Leshan Buddha which is located just outside of the city of Leshan, in the province of Sichuan, China. The detailing that went into designing and also preserving this colossal carving is one which has helped it to survive over many centuries, while also serving a religious purpose as well.

The instrumentality, or the hidden purpose, of the sculpture is a drainage system which had been carved into the Buddha to aid in the preservation of the statue. Located on top of the head is 1,021 buns which have been carved to not only help generate an aesthetic component to the sculpture, but one which would allow the statue to survive for many centuries. In conjunction with the buns, located inside the actual Buddha itself is a hidden system of drains, gutters and channels. These can be found throughout the head, ears, arms and even in the detailing of the clothes of the Buddha. The purpose of creating this drainage system for the statue is to diverge the rainwater and displace it elsewhere so that it will not penetrate the statue and cause the stone to become weathered and eventually deteriorate.

The issue of whether a structure can withstand the natural elements of time and the always changing yet unpredictable weather, is something that architects and their structures are constantly facing. This idea to create something that can withstand time for future generations to not only observe but to engage and learn from, is half of the battle when designing and creating structures or even a massive statue.

Brittany

BLOG #2 Tectonic Origami- Modular Bascetta Star

Tectonics in relation to architecture is the creation of structures and the rational that goes into their construction. It is what gives the structure shape in the space it occupies. Tectonics is the art of combining fragments of an object and signifies a complete system of a greater whole. Good architecture always begins with efficient construction. But it involves many materials and they are used according to their properties for example, concrete demands a different method of construction from paper. Architecture begins when materials are joined together, and it is in that joining that materials create something significant.

Architectonics does not favor a particular style but is defined by the application of established rules. The architectonics of the modular Bascetta star is simple; it requires the folding of 30 sheets of paper, each folded identically and are interconnected with each other to achieve a greater complex whole.

Architectonics is the focus of architecture as a constructional technique. “Modern architecture is as much about structure and construction as it is about space and abstract form.” [1]It is in the structure and construction of this Bascetta star that one can see the elemental technique of each unit interconnected to make a complete star. Modern architecture is evolving and more architects prefer to use abstract forms, it can be argued that the symbolic significance is missing from these examples that older more tradition buildings offer. In later research I hope to prove this wrong with examples from Tadao Ando and his use of concrete and geometric forms in the many religious buildings in various parts of Asia. Construction therefore is the building of a dynamic social and cultural framework.

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[1] Frampton, K. 1995. Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture. London: The MIT Press.

By: Patricia Brooke Herczeg

The instrumentality of the compass.

The compass is a useful tool that allows us to travel to the correct path by pin pointing the direction, but the historical usage of the compass differs from the modern purpose. The Chinese ancestors used the earliest form of the compass (details on previous post) to harmonize their environment and architecture within nature.

The “feng shui compass”, which heavily relies on astronomy and geomancy, was used to find the link between humans and the universe. The idea of feng shui further breaks down to different techniques that allowed the architect to look at different elements within the site before the building construction began. The elements involved: qi (the energy), yin and yang, and ba gua (the eight trigrams [covered in today’s lecture]). After the architect examines all of the elements with the feng shui compass, then the architect decides and coordinates the perfect spot depending on the program of the building. The tradition of feng shui compass evolved and it’s still being used to guide modern architects to plan their projects.

Although the technique relates less to the heaven and earth, the idea remains: to locate the main entrance, main hall, windows, walls, stairs and rooms. The notion of “the perfect spot” always derives the architect to find ideal locations for each of the individual elements within the architecture. When all of the elements of feng shui are in harmony, the function and experience of the space could change in a way that dwellers are naturally welcomed and adapted to the architecture.

jason yoo

photo by shutterstock http://photo-dict.faqs.org/phrase/3462/feng-shui-compass.html

The Pagoda - Part 2

In last week’s blog, the focus was on the symbolic value and usage of a pagoda artefact based on the Feng Shui belief. In the spirit of conducting an architectural investigation, I will further explore the pagoda in a more structural aspect – in the assembling of its joinery.

The art of joinery contributes greatly to the construction of a long-lasting freestanding pagoda structure. In Japan, all pagodas are primarily made out of wood; a significant feature for it reinforces their flexibility in sustaining the frequent earthquakes in Japan. The fall back in using wood for its entire structure is that the pagoda becomes extremely susceptible to fire. However, in using wood as a material relying merely on its joinery, fastening together the structural members by inserting carved thinner and narrower ends into slots, it eliminates the usage of nails entirely, allowing the wood surfaces in these joints to twist and rub against each other as they absorb seismic stresses.

The general posts and lintels structure of the pagoda starts with a square base at the bottom. As more stories are added to the base, the levels or tiers get progressively smaller and are structurally independent from one another. A central pillar, or shimbashira, standing on the base stone is extended up to the spire; however, it does not support the framework, roof, or any other parts of the structure. It is the inner and outer posts around the central pillar that are instrumental in supporting the weight of each story independently.

Typically, there are twelve pillars to each level known as gawabashira, which are enclosed by essentially a box with no bottom. The pagoda as a whole is, in essence, five stacked boxes. As the footprint of each level becomes smaller than the one beneath it, the placement of the gawabashira moves inward toward the center of the pagoda, supported and braced by horizontal beams. The pillars rest on these horizontal bases, which in turn are supported by diagonal beams known as taruki. The slanting beams run from the inside of the structure diagonally downward to the outside, where they support the eaves. Consequently, the large eave of each tier is supported by the portion of the taruki that protrudes from the pagoda with the eaves acting as a counterweight, balancing out the weight put on the taruki by the gawabashira that are supporting each level of the pagoda. The large roof of a pagoda, consisting of clay and tiles laid on top of wood rafters, is extremely heavy. A heavy roof relative to the size of the building is one of the main characteristics of traditional Japanese wood architecture. This then raises a serious concern. If each eave is supported by the level above itself, what happens to the eave that is located at the top of the pagoda? To solve this problem, a finial, or spire, made of copper or iron is placed at the very top of the pagoda, and is used as the counterweight for the uppermost eave.

All of these components together create a structure that provides layers of boxes that may sway slowly and swing independently of the others during typhoons and earthquakes, but almost never collapse. Pagodas were built not to resist the forces of nature head-on but to accept and absorb their impact; pagodas epitomize the ingenuity of traditional Japanese wood architecture.

Carmen_m2