YODOKO GUEST HOUSE(AMERICAN + JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE) F.L. WRIGHT

Introduction

• Designed by F.L.Wright, when he came to Japan from 1915 to 1922 to design the Imperial Hotel. • As a second house for the family of Yamamura, a famous sake brewer in Nada, Kobe.• The construction was carried out from 1923 to 1924 with the execution design and supervision

by two disciples of Wright, Arata Endo and Makoto Minami.

• Site Area:About 4700㎡Total Floor Area:542.43㎡• Is the only surviving Frank Lloyd Wright residence in Japan. • The guest house was designed in 1918, and construction was completed six years

later.• Set into a hilltop in Ashiva, overlooking the Port of Kobe in western Japan.• The exterior evokes Wright's Los Angeles textile block houses, but its decorative

blocks are of Oya stone, not concrete.• In 1947, the house became the property of Yodogawa Steel Works, Ltd., and was

used as an official residence for the company president. • It was the first Taishō period building in Japan to be named an Important Cultural

Property, in 1974. • It was opened to the public as Yodokō Guest House in 1989. • The building was damaged due to the Great Hanshin earthquake in 1995, but was

subsequently repaired and has been re-opened.

1918 Basic design finished.

1923 Construction work started.

February 1924 Roof-raising.

Mid-1924 Construction work completed.

1935 Became the property of Shigejiro Amaki as his second house. Used as a socializing place for the occupation forces after the war.

1947 Became the property of YODOGAWA STEEL WORKS, LTD.., and was used as an official residence for the company president.

1959 Rented out to Americans.

1971-1973 Used as an apartment for single employees of YODOGAWA STEEL WORKS, LTD..

May 1974 Designated a National Important Cultural Property.

1981 Research carried out.

July 1985-November 1988 Repair construction for preservation carried out.

December 1988 Construction completed.

June 1989 Opened to the public as YODOKO GUEST HOUSE.

January 1995 Partially damaged due to the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake.

June 1995-March 1998 Research and repair construction carried out.

March 1998 Construction completed.

May 1998 Again opened to the public.

Approach: Driveway from Southwest

• Although the house is four stories high in total, every section of the building is one or two stories high because the floors overlap like a staircase along with the inclination of the ridge.

Approach

• The approach to YODOKO GUEST HOUSE is very unique to Wright’s works.• Unlike the usual houses where the entrance is near the road, the

entrance of this house is located at the remotest part of the building.

• Oyaishi stone - for the exterior of the porch.It is an open porch, flat on the ceiling, provides a clear view of the other side of the porch.

Approach: Porch

Entrance

• Water trickles down from a stone pillar embedded in the wall and flows into the small pit engraved on the stone.• “Organic architecture”• This tastefully imitates a natural stream welling out of mountain rocks.

FALLING WATER ??

Drawing room

• Large fixed windows on each side.• Small windows in series on top of them. • Built-in couches for specific view angles.

Drawing room: Northern side

• Large fireplace made of Oyaishi stone.• Three fireplaces when Wright designed it, and one added later.• “It is relaxing to watch a clear fire in the depths of the massive

stone masonry of a building.”---- Wright

Drawing room (second floor)

• Narrow doorway to the drawing room (62 cm in width), • Sandwiched between a decorative fireplace and an Oyaishi

stone pillar.• Other side of this narrow spot, a spacious room with high

ceilings.

Hallway(third floor) : Inside-Outside

• Large windows reaching the floor.• Instead of ordinary sash windows, Wright

adopted rare swing-out windows.• “Inside-Outside”

Japanese-style room (third floor)

• Three main rooms on the 3rd floor are all Japanese-style rooms with tatami floors.• Not included in Wright’s original design. • Strong request from the client.• Decorative copper plates transoms.

Stairs (North)

• The wall of the staircase from the Japanese-style room on the third floor to the fourth floor is made of clay.

• The clay wall -- Japanese wall construction technique • For wooden buildings -- clay is coated onto frames made of

bamboo trees.• Eastern entrance wall and the walls on the western side of the

Japanese-style rooms are also of clay.

Dining room (fourth floor)

• The dining room -- most decorated room.• Square shape.• Geometrical figures• Wooden decorations.

Dining room (fourth floor):

Decorations

Balcony / Roof top :

The door on the southern side of the dining room leads to the balcony.

Arch of the balcony

• The rooftops of the second and third floors are used as balconies.• Connected to each other with an arched stairs.• Low ceiling -- functions just like the doorway of the

drawing room.

View from balcony

• Both have out-of box plans.• Use of terrain for the structure.• Effect of trickling water in YOKODO GUEST HOUSE, similar to FALLING WATER.• Large Balconies, and rooftops in both.• Built in such a way that visitor appreciates the building as one drives towards it.• It seems as an experimental project before FALLING WATER’s construction.

YOKODO GUEST HOUSE

FALLING WATER

COMPARISON:

THANK YOUAgresh Shrivastava, Kumar Snehansu

10110002, 10110029B.Arch IIIrd yr