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Welcome to Sakuteiki 作庭記 a Japanese garden blog.
To diverge for a moment from our discussion of proto-religious expression, you may recall last week I began by saying that the built and natural environment should be formed so that they harmonise to constitute a holistic ecology, and, this aesthetic appreciation directly benefits the environment in which we live.
In The News
Yesterday (2010-01-12) we read in the news that a spike in energy consumption during Melbourne's heatwave has caused widespread blackouts;
"Mass power blackouts across state", the Age newspaper, 2010-1-12.
The article continues,
"They were all heat stress-related types of power interruption, …. "
"about 10,000 people lost supply last night …. "
"It was probably at its worst about 7pm as people were all getting
home from work and turning on their air conditioners … " ¹.
Holistic Ecology and Bioclimatic Building Design
In Australia we are still a long way off fully embracing bioclimatic building design to create a holistic living environment. Indeed, all architectural design should analyse and cater for the thermal comfort of inhabitants; including the mean radiant temperature, thermal radiation, elevation, aspect, surrounding vegetation, topography, humidity, air movement, prevailing winds, draughts, thermal mass of building products and many other factors. It is the combination of these factors that can mean the difference between a building that is comfortable all year round, or a building that is like a furnace in summer and bitterly cold in winter; requiring energy-hungry cooling and heating purely to make the environment tolerable.
The vernacular houses (Machiya) of Kyoto's heritage gardens embrace many of the factors mentioned above. Kyoto summers are hotter and more humid than Sydney's and Melbourne's and Kyoto winters are much colder than ours ² ³ ⁴.
Sydney Melbourne Kyoto climate averages
Yet the designs of the Machiyas built during the Meiji (1868-1912), Taishō (1912-1926) and early Shōwa (1926-1935) periods reflect an advanced level of bioclimatic building design ⁵ ⁶. They have a holistic ecology that can cope with far greater climactic extremes without the use of air-conditioning.
uda matsuyama, Wikimedia Commons, GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
We can learn so much from these Machiya, so hopefully as Kyoto's burgeoning metropolis grows, these wonderful vernacular houses will get the UNESCO World Heritage protection that they deserve ⁵ ⁷. These quaint architectural structures have much to teach us about the value of bioclimatic building design.
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1. Ham, L. (2010). Mass power blackouts across state. The Age. from http://www.theage.com.au/national/mass-power-blackouts-across-state-20100112-m3jx.html
2. The Weather Channel. (2009) Monthly Averages for Kyoto, Japan. http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/JAXX0047
3. Bureau of Meteorology. (2009). Climate statistics for Australian locations: Summary statistics Melbourne Regional Office. from http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_086071.shtml
4. Bureau of Meteorology. (2009). Climate statistics for Australian locations: Summary statistics Sydney (Observatory Hill). from http://reg.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_066062.shtml
5. Machiya Preservation Project. (2008) A City Under Siege: Saving Kyoto's Machiya from Destruction. November 5 2008 Evening Symposium. from http://www.japansociety.org/resources/content/2/0/5/4/documents/machiyasymposium.pdf [PDF 63.8 KB]
6. Development Research Institute. (n.d.) Sugimoto Residence-Seasonal Preparations. from http://www.gyoutai.com/eng/kyoto/sugimoto/siturai.htm
7. Keane M.P. (n.d.). Turning Kyoto Into Kindling. featured in Architecture Magazine, May 2000. from http://www.mpkeane.com/writhtml/amag.html
8. 663highland. (2008). File:Uda Matsuyama03s3200.jpg. Wikimedia Commons. from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Uda_Matsuyama03s3200.jpg
