Japão: Caos e Cosmos

Abstract

Travel is, i think, the best way to learn Architecture. As a result, this dissertation is created from a physical experience lived while i was visiting Japan. Side by side with theories, arguments and ideas for an architecture, some punctual episodes written in the first person allow to a better understanding and aproximation of the true feeling of this country. A fundamental change is currently taking place in society: for the first time in history, half of the world's population lives in big cities, dense and highly urbanized. In this context, Japan and mainly the city of Tokyo provide important and inteligent architectonic experiences that raise at levels never seen before the investigation of problems caused by the need of space to dwell in big cities. Important steps taken on every house project for a big city start from current and culturally specific notions of proximity, privacy and relationships between residents. Space has evolved. It is not subordinated to boundaries and mathematically calculated functions anymore. Notions of limit are increasingly approaching a transparency that is not material but which extends along the abstract field of the information networks of urban areas. Despite its recession, Japan is today one of the most developed asian countries and culturally proximate to the ocidental world. As an essencial force of the architectonic growth, every idea proposed at the evolution process of japanese cities contribute to a new meaning of dwelling and influence, directly or not, a global knowledge of living in urban areas. Above all things, they are experiences that challenge social stablished norms and offer new alternatives that simultaneously shape the life of the resident and the face of the city.