Togo Murano
| Tōgo Murano | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | 15 May 1891 Karatsu, Japan |
| Died | 26 November 1984 Ōsaka, Japan |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Alma mater | Waseda University |
| Awards | Honorary Doctorate from Waseda University in 1973 |
| Work | |
| Buildings | Memorial Cathedral for World Peace, Ube City Public Hall |
Tōgo Murano (村野 藤吾 Murano Tōgo, May 15, 1891 – November 26, 1984) was a Japanese architect. He was a modernist but also a master of the sukiya style. His work incorporated large public buildings as well as hotels and department stores and he has been recognised as one of Japan's Modern Masters.
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[edit] Life
After graduating from Waseda University Murano joined the Kansai office of Setsu Watanabe before opening his own office in Ōsaka in 1929. He was the author of a number of publications including Be above style! in 1929 and The Economic Environment of Architecture in 1926. In his 1931 Looking While Moving he riled against Le Corbusier and the Modern Movement and declared that the skyscrapers of Manhattan were the way forward. Unlike his contemporary, Antonin Raymond, Murano courted simplicity in his work, concentrating on the high arts like tea ceremony and conceptual elegance.[1]
In addition to his works of architecture, Murano designed the first class lounge and dining rooms for the luxury cruise ships, Argentina Maru and Brazil Maru, both launched in 1939. Both ships were sunk during World War II.[2] He also gained a reputation for designing large buildings such as hotels and department stores.[3]
In 1973 Murano was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Waseda University. Docomomo listed five of Murano's buildings in its selection of the 100 most important Japanese modernist buildings, they are described below. Japanese Design Magazine Casa Brutus named Murano one of Japan's Modern Masters in a recent special issue.[4]
[edit] Morigo Company Tokyo branch
This was Murano's debut work after he left Setsu Watanabe's office. Completed in 1931 the Morigo building was a seven storey office building situated in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. The baked salt tiles on the façade give it a warmer presence to the street than would normally be expected for a building of its size. The regularly spaced windows sit flush to external face of the wall and this along with the curved corner and expressed eaves-line reduce visual clutter and give the building clean lines. In 1960 an eighth floor was added but this has not been detrimental to the overall appearance.[5]
[edit] Ube City Public Hall
To celebrate 40 years in industry, Ube Industries donated this building to the city of Ube in 1937 to commemorate its founder Yasaku Watanabe. The complex was designed around a fan shape with the backstage areas at the pinch point of the fan radiating in turn out to the stage, auditorium and entrance plaza. Six free-standing concrete finned columns (three to each side) frame the main entrance and represent each of the six affiliated companies who donated money for the building. Originally the tiles on the three concentric circles of the main façade had a salt-glazed finish in burnt carmine, but during restoration work in 1994 they were replaced with reductive fired tiles in burnt umber. The exposed concrete columns were also painted at that time.[6]
[edit] Memorial Cathedral for World Peace
The original Catholic cathedral in this location was destroyed in the atomic bomb explosion in 1945. A design competition was launched in 1947 to find an architect for its replacement. A total of 177 designs were submitted from Japanese architects such as Kenzo Tange and Kunio Maekawa, but no overall winner was declared.[7] Murano ended up doing the design although he was actually one of the jurors.
The cathedral is situated between Tange's Peace Memorial Park and JR Hiroshima Station. Although the rectilinear nature of the design has echoes of basilica design, the post-and-beam concrete frame with internal panels is reminiscent of traditional Japanese architecture as are the shapes of the windows penetrating the tower. The brick infills in this case were made from earth containing ashes from the atomic bomb. Architect Kenji Imai designed the sculptures above the main door. Murano undertook a number of religious projects after this one and converted to Catholicism later in life.[8]
[edit] Kasuien, The Miyako Hotel
Murano designed this annex to the Miyako Hotel in Kyoto in a sukiya style. The site plan of Kasuien is laid out to enclose a garden and was inspired by Kyoto's Daigo-ji. The annex is set out as a series of pavilions set within the sloped landscape and connected by enclosed walkways. Although the overtone of the design is one of the Sukiya tradition, ordered by the principles of the tea ceremony, Murano grafted onto this his own modern interpretation by the use of materials like steel and concrete as the primary structure. He used these materials to change otherwise traditional details making them slimmer and lighter.[9]
[edit] Nishinomiya Trappist Monastery
The Nishinomiya Trappist Monastery designed in 1969 is situated in the Rokko Mountains in Japan. It is home to about 90 sisters. The building is located on a sloped site in woodland and is planned around an elevated cloister onto which the building elements face. Although it has been compared to Le Corbusier's La Tourette it differs by having a much more intimate relationship with its natural surroundings and a lighter facade.[10]
[edit] Selected projects
- 1931 Morigo Company Tokyo branch
- 1933 Osaka Pantheon
- 1934 Nakayama House, Kobe
- 1935 Institute of German Civilisation
- 1937 Ube City Public Hal
- 1954 Memorial Cathedral for World Peace
- 1959 Kasuien, The Miyako Hotel
- 1969 Nishinomiya Trappist Monastery
[edit] Gallery
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Former Hokkoku Bank Musashigatsuji Branch, Kanazawa Ishikawa, 1932
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Maruei Department Store, Nagoya, 1953
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Yomiuri Hall, at Yurakucho Tokyo, 1957
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Yokohama City Hall, at Yokohama Kanagawa, 1959
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Yaesu Daibiru, at Chuo-ku Tokyo, 1965
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Old Industrial Bank of Japan Head Office, at Marunouchi Tokyo, 1974
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Daibiru Kōjimachi, Tokyo, 1976
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Grand Prince Hotel New Takanaya, 1982
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Stewart (2002), p142 & 143
- ^ http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1596685.1596817 retrieved 29 September 2010
- ^ http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1329280/Murano-Togo Encyclopedia Britannica, retrieved 1/10/2010
- ^ April 2009, The Seven Modernist Masters, Casa Brutus No109
- ^ Japan Architect (2005), p42
- ^ Japan Architect (2005), p55
- ^ Reynolds (2001), p156
- ^ Japan Architect (2005), p74
- ^ Japan Architect (2005), p84
- ^ Japan Architect (2005), p164
[edit] References
- Reynolds, Jonathan McKean (2001). Maekawa Kunio and the Emergence of Japanese Modernist Architecture. London, United Kingdom: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-21495-1.
- Stewart, Dennis B (2002). The Making of a Modern Japanese Architecture: From the Founders to Shinohara and Isozaki. New York, United States: Kodansha International. ISBN 4-770-02933-0.
- "Docomomo Japan: The 100 Selections". The Japan Architect (Japan: The Japan Architect Company) (57). Spring 2005. ISSN 0448-8512.
[edit] External links
Media related to Togo Murano at Wikimedia Commons
