Architectural Design+Process
All images here are raw digital files from an iphone. They are shown in the order taken during two recent walks in Gatineau Park. The images can be viewed at a larger scale by clicking or double-clicking on them.
Pictures above are from a walk in the park June 15, 2021. Shots below are from a walk in the park last Saturday.
In September of 2016, I was in Japan with a group of architecture students from the University of Calgary. During the trip we meet with a monk, Shunmyo Toshiaki Masuno, at a monestary near Kamakura. He was a master designer of Zen gardens and had completed many national and international projects. He mentioned that he had done a project at the Museum of Civilization (now renamed the Museum of History) in Gatineau, Quebec. Since moving to Hull later in the Fall of 2016, I had made several inquiries about the Garden, including at the Museum itself, but did not have any luck in finding out where it was. Recently walking through the Museum grounds, I came across a sign for the Garden which is located on an elevated terrace – not exactly a hidden garden, but not in plain sight either.
The photos below are from last Friday evening and yesterday.
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The attached are recent studies for a smaller and simpler version of the current design thinking for the project in La Pêche. While certainly there are many differences and reductions with this study, the intent was not to lose the key spirit of the design approach as developed over the lasts months. At costing, a next step, the larger summer/fall 2020 design and this smaller option will be compared and direction confirmed. This study fits with the current site scope and layout. The set-out point for the house does not change, the footprint would just be shorter east-west.
Images can be viewed at a larger scale by clicking or double clicking on them.
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Raw digital files from an iphone. Photos shown in order taken. Easter, April 4th, 2021
The drawings here are part of a series of site focused studies that were completed over the last few months for the project in La Pêche. Posting NOA 101 on this website included some related progress sketches. With this series the site plan was updated, and site sections and building / site sections were explored. Cut and fill requirements were also looked at. The scale used for these studies is 1:100. For further design development for the project, and for construction documents, a larger scale of 1:50 will be appropriate.
Nine of the drawings that were done with this exercise, cut through the house or show a building elevation. Once a key plan is added to show the cut locations, the series will be posted in order.
Images can be viewed at a larger scale by clicking or double clicking on them.
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1 La Cour suprême, le 9 janvier Ernest Cormier Architecte
2, 3 Parc de la Gatineau, Sentier #5, le 25 janvier
4 Challenger à Hull, le 2 fevrier
5 Le Canal Rideau, le 3 fevrier
6, 7 Les écluses d’Ottawa, et la Rivière des Outaouais, le 13 fevrier
8 Station Pimisi, le 19 fevrier
9 Parc de la Gatineau, Sentier #1, le 21 fevrier
10 Demolition sur la rue Booth – le 22 fevrier
11. Parc de la Gatineau, Sentier #5, jeudi
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Images above taken December 30, 2020, February 6th and 21st, 2021
Additional images added March 3rd, 2021. These date from February 6th, February 27th and March 3rd.
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I received an email last week from a friend in Tokyo, Igarashi-san , who was a former Masters studio classmate of mine in the early 1990’s. The email subject line was ‘Professeur Yamashita died’. Yamashita-sensei was our studio lead at the Shinjuku campus of Kogakuin Daigaku. He died on December 2nd 2020 at the age of 86. While a student in his studio, he shared with me some simple architectural lessons that I still remember today. He was the first person to talk to me about ‘sustainability’. At the time, the word/concept was not used in an environmental and cultural sense, the way it is now. He said that I would be hearing much more about this in the future. He took an interest in what I was doing as well.
The panel in the photo above was a gift from Yamashita-sensei. I remember him doing the calligraphy in his office as I and a couple of other students watched. He may have made some explanation as he composed the image, but I have no clear recollection of this. This week I sent this photo to Igarashi-san and another former classmate, Ishikawa-san, and received the following responses. First from Igarashi-san:
Sen no Rikyu is said to be a four-word expression of the spirit of the tea ceremony.
和･･･”Wagokoro”: Matching hearts
“Wagokoro” means harmony, harmony, and Japanese music. A calm state where everything is in harmony. It means relaxing, opening up and getting along with each other.
敬･･･”Respect”: Respect each other
“Respect” is to humbly respect the other person. Humans are selfish creatures. So you need to be conscious and refrain from yourself.
清･･･”Qing”: Being pure
“Qing” means that the mind is pure, but it also means that the tools and tea room are always kept clean. If you compare it with something around you, it means that “a clean toilet makes your heart clean.” Please note that it is easy to mistake it for “quiet”.
寂･･･”Lonely”: Being a lonely beauty
“Lonely” is silence. It represents a quiet and unmoving heart.
It seems that these four things were the core spirit of the tea ceremony.
If you try to convey it in simple words, it seems that you can get along with anyone as long as you have a solid core that doesn’t move and respect the other person.
And then the response from Ishikawa-san:
I answer about “和敬清寂”
my wife told me about it
because it is words of the tea ceremony, and she learns the tea ceremony
It is the words that Sen no Rikyu who is a master of tea ceremony said the “和敬清寂”
千利休 Sen no Rikyu (1522-1591).
All the Japanese know Sen no Rikyu.He is a historical great man.
“和敬清寂”
It is the knowledge of the tea ceremony that “regards harmony as important in all with anyone peacefully, and respects it each other, and reaches everything being clean heartily, the heart to be thereby calm, and not to be shaken at any time”
和(wa):peace and harmony
敬 (kei):respect
清(sei):purity
寂(jaku):tranquility
I do not know whether Prf.Yamashita learned it from a teacher of the tea ceremony
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