Soft Architecture （柔らかい建築）

 Soft Architecture, 2006

                     By Tadami Yamada

山田維史   「柔らかい建築」　2006年

     When you think about it, strangely enough, human dwellings are not designed to gently embrace the soft body, but rather to be based on a completely opposite concept. They are hard and linear. To soften the rigidity, a buffer material must be placed between the body and the architecture. This is something like a futon, a mat, straw, or fur. This does not exist for other living things other than humans. The homes (nests) of other living things have a consistent design depending on the species, and Mr. A's house and Ms. B's house are almost the same, and are curved. It is safe to say that linear nests are rare.

     Salvador Dali seems to have had a desire to return to the womb. He once crawled naked into a large plastic egg and took photos. There is no doubt that the womb is the most comfortable place for a human to live. As soon as we leave the womb, we have to live in an extremely uncomfortable space for the rest of our lives. Like Dali, an egg dwelling may be the next best thing. 

     I have looked into whether there are any egg-shaped buildings in the world, past or present. Then I learned that it had apparently never even been imagined. My conclusion as to why this was the case is that the realities of building materials and techniques suppressed the idea of an impossible concept. In fact, I quickly add that it was imagined in just one instance in the twentieth century, as a concept for a gigantic building by an architect named André Briel. Of course, it was never realized, so it can be called a piece of fantasy architecture. However, the fact that it was conceived in the twentieth century means that the technical possibility had finally become apparent.

     Even if Briel's concept were realized and an egg-shaped building were born, it would still be far from the softness of a womb, and would still be simply a "hard" egg-shaped dwelling.

     Why have humans not been able to create curved, soft, and, so to speak, suitable dwellings?

     Has such soft architecture never appeared in human history in the first place?

     That is not the case. There is only one example of people who used soft architecture as their home. It is the house of Neolithic people in Riedenthal near Cologne, described by the great scholar Bernard Rudolfsky.

     The house is a complex curved structure that is unconventional by any standard, with an irregular plan that is by no means accidental (meaning that it was designed that way), undulating walls, and shell-shaped recesses scattered all over the interior, which Bernard Rudolfsky says express the joy of free-spirited form. He continues, "The recesses invite you to lean back in them and, as it were, to sneak into the earth, into the earth of a highly refined shape."

     In other words, the flat surface of the house, which would normally be called the floor, was filled with holes that fit the body of each family member... gently accommodating the curves of the body. An astonishing idea, an astonishing freedom. This is perhaps the ultimate human dwelling, reminiscent of a womb.

     We have completely lost the culture possessed by the Riedenthal Neolithic people. Our culture began at a point where even the memory of that culture had been lost. No other culture has been lost as beautifully as this. The dwellings of other living things are built into the instincts of that living thing. In other words, they have genes for building dwellings. Humans do not have these genes. Culture takes the place of genes. This is the significance of the fact that the Riedenthal culture has completely disappeared.

     If we, who are not Riedenthal people, were to imagine ourselves architecturally, what would we come up with? The concept of human body architecture appears in Kunieda Shiro's novel "The Bell of Dawn Comes from the West."

〈The structure of this building is based on the human brain, and was built independently. It was surrounded on three sides by white walls, which resembled both arms. In other words, it was shaped like both arms extended above the head to protect the head. To the south of the brain building was built a building based on the torso, and eleven rooms based on the five internal organs were placed inside it, and connected by corridors. The most elaborate design was in the roots of the building, with the ridgepole and beams arranged to look like ribs. The brain building and the torso building were connected by a corridor with roots, which needless to say were based on the throat. The torso building was of course the main house, and a garden was set up on the south side, which was likened to the human groin, and white walls were built around it, likening it to both legs.〉

     It's just an architectural image that looks like a child's doodle. Although they have taken the trouble to include drawings, it would be better if they did not exist. They are rather disgusting. The creativity of the Riedenthal people is on a much, much more distant shore.

[References]

Bernard Rudolfsky, "The Amazing Craftsmen" (translated by Watanabe Takenobu, Kashima Publishing Co., 1979)

Andre Bruyer and "L OEUF THE EGG" EDITIONS ALBIN MICHEL 1978