DESIGN MUSEUM JAPAN

Sado, Niigata Prefecture

What does design mean to you?

Design isn't a natural phenomenon.

It doesn't occur spontaneously. People create it.

There's a sense of rationality in architecture and urban development.

Nishizawa visits Shukunegi, a district on Sado Island.

It was a base for ships that shuttled between Osaka and Hokkaido.

This was a land of boat builders.

Their influence can be seen in the local architecture.

Houses are densely packed, to make the best use of limited land.

In a one-hectare valley are over 200 buildings.

Here, we discover the logic of ocean-going people.

These are quite different from normal houses.

This one is shaped like the bow of a ship.

Shipbuilding techniques influenced the house-building techniques.

The first thing I noticed is that the houses are closed off, like ships.

They're curved.

They're not like regular houses, which would have straight sides.

The curved-wood skills used in making boats were used to make these houses.

For the builders, curved wood was an entirely logical choice.

Nishizawa notices something else.

A 30-cm gap between houses.

The space between the buildings looks really clean. It's sharp.

You can have a fleet of ships, but they're all still separate.

So the lack of tenement houses has a nautical feel to it.

They're all detached houses, built as discrete units.

Looking closer, we find more maritime influences.

The roof.

It's really distinctive.

It's three-dimensional.

The angle is different on each side.

Japanese architecture is generally flat.

This roof has a third dimension. It's a totally different approach.

It slopes towards that drainpipe.

Their designs are developed in three dimensions from the start.

They've used beams and pillars of different shapes and sizes.

That's another ship reference. Each cross-section being different.

The design communicates the values of the people.

A built environment says a lot about a society.

A community builds what is efficient and economically viable.

It varies by region. In the mountains or by the sea.

Here, the same logic leading to different results is interesting.