Dynamic Balance: Bringing Traditional Japanese Architecture to the 21st Century

In much contemporary architecture today there exists a disconnect between humans and nature, between humans and a regional, cultural identity. Beginning with the Modernist movement of the early 20th Century, many architects have turned away from reliance on nearby resources and building methods suited to their particular environment and towards the material and technological variety made possible by modern manufacturing and transportation. While the reproduction of buildings of the past would be anachronistic and counter-productive, many older styles, such as Japanese traditional architecture, a focus of this thesis, can offer design techniques to help contemporary buildings refocus on nature and on their specific local environment.

This project uses these techniques from traditional Japanese architecture to design a contemporary, ecologically-sensitive building in the United States based on unique conditions within the urban landscape and shows that older traditional architecture is relevant to the 21st Century.