< PreviousTo the right of Sawa-no-ike Pond there are rice fields and behind it there are tea plantations. Before the Meiji period, most of the garden was arable land.284 Drops of water and concrete on a hilltop This large drop of white concrete is located at the top of a hill. An imposed route prepares you for a contemplative activity. Entering the museum, barefoot, no mobile, no photos, in silence and not knowing what awaits, only provokes excitement. At first, you do not realize what is happening and it is only a few minutes later that you start to understand the space, through the movements of the other visitors. The ground’s concrete surface oozes transparent water which gradually forms small drops. These drops, due to the imperfection and lack of flatness of the ground, come together in tiny streams which end up flowing into small depressions where the water remains while other drops remain expectant, on the edge. This looks like a transparent city on a bay. My biggest concern as I entered was to avoid stepping on any drops, or in a puddle. The white concrete roof is open. Two round perforations allow for interior rain, for ventilation and exterior noises to enter. Small insects run between the drops of water. A green one-legged grasshopper becomes stuck and a spider crawls quickly across the dry area. An ant persistently tries to cross the puddle but collides with the water again and again. A white thread sways with the wind and coincides with the curve of the largest gap. You can hear squawking, chirping and the smooth buzzing of machinery. WEDNESDAY, JULY 11TH, 2018, TESHIMA ISLAND Teshima Art Museum285 MANGA 15 Ryue Nishizawa, architect. Rei Naito, artist. Teshima Art Museum. Teshima. Kagawa Prefecture, 2010.286287322 Conversation across an old field The ten dwellings are located in a residential area, almost at the point where the city meets the mountains. On the other side of the street lies a large farm field, bordered by a row of dwellings with terraces protected by fiberglass pent roofs. There is a certain dialogue between the two different situations, a neighbourly conversation between the modest sheds which speak in unison, and the finely tuned chorus of the Nishinoyama roofs. In the work of SANAA, the wooden structures move forward through the small alleyways and in the distance overlap, whereas on the other side of the street the fiberglass roofs have the same slope and face the same way, no nuance. Photos 324: Drying washing, satellite dishes and AC units under the plain roofs in existing housing to the north-west of SANAA. 325: Eaves of the Nishinoyama housing. 327: Access to the car park. 328: Open terrace facing east but elevated three metres above the public street space. 330: Another degree of openness of a terrace, in visual contact with the interior of the dwelling. 332: Vegetation and interior passageways between dwellings with the access stairs for the basement car park. 334: Roofs at different heights with an undersized drainpipe for the rainy season fixed to the metal support. NISHINOYAMA HOUSING, KYOTO323 MANGA 16 SANAA/ Kazuyo Sejima, Ryue Nishizawa. Nishinoyama Housing, Kyoto. Kyoto Prefecture, 2013.334335 “In making for ourselves a place to live, we first spread a parasol to throw a shadow on the earth, and in the pale light of the shadow we put together a house.”* JUNICHIRO TANIZAKI *Junichiro Tanizaki. In Praise of Shadows. Leete’s Island Books, 1977. p.17.Next >