nic the intern's white out - aoki jun's n house
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By ro / lu in white out Published: Friday, 16 January 09 - 08:07 AM (GMT -06:00) Last Updated: Thursday, 12 November 09 - 04:23 PM (GMT -06:00) |
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white out is an ongoing series of posts drawn from a presentation that our intern nicolas allinder gave about his research into recent modern japanese architecture.
"the time has come," the walrus said,
and whether pigs have wings."
when i try to describe n house , it feels as if I'm verbally sketching the absurdness as seen above: a walrus and carpenter preparing to tell a story to a crowd of unsuspecting clams, doomed to be shucked. somewhere in louis carroll's poem there's a hidden meaning, whatever it may be, because as the duchess says, "everything's got a moral, if only you can find it." so, somewhere in my explanation of aoki jun's n house there must be a moral; follow me down the rabbit's hole and we'll find it together.
it's a ridiculous monopoly house perched atop a bomb shelter, right? yet further inspection reveals even more peculiar sights. the monopoly house is full of eccentricities, the windows are oddly located, and as you move around the house you'll find the window placements don't align, the mullions shift position, and the roof line changes.
the back end feels like a modernists' funhouse at a japanese state fair. window wells seem randomly placed; they're probably portals to some mad tea party.
there is no hatter or dormouse, though you might expect to stumble into a conversation between matthew barney and bjork, in this beautiful and elegant minimalist setting.
despite its charm, there are actually a lot of mundane realities that drive the design of this funhouse. jun's idea of constructing a bunker actually results from his desire to bypass legal restrictions on the percentage of property he could build on. further, his use of the iconic house shape derives from the surrounding architectural vernacular, such as adjacent gabled roofs. suddenly, this house almost feels regular.
n house reminds me so much of gunnar asplund's villa snellman and its subtle brilliance in playing with sweden's traditional architectural elements.
like snellman, n house is eccentric but not esoteric; in fact its very much a product of its surroundings.
maybe that's why i love it.
posted by nicolas allinder - the intern
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