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失われた象徴的建造物
近代建築に大きな足跡を残したアメリカの建築家、フランク・ロイド・ライト・
日本における彼の代表作が、1923年に竣工し、当時「東洋の宝石」と称された帝国ホテル・ライト館だ。
関東大震災と東京大空襲を生き延びたこの建物は、しかし老朽化などの問題を理由に67年に閉鎖され、翌年に取り壊されてしまったのだった。
A lost landmark
When the wrecking ball fell on Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel in December 1967, it marked the end of rescue efforts that had rallied thousands of supporters around the world. But it marked the beginning of a new appreciation for Wright's genius in Japan — the only other country outside America in which the great architect had lived and worked.
Wright's fascination with Japan had begun with ukiyo-e prints in the late 1880s. Their beauty intoxicated him: He was drawn to their abstract shapes, their unusual perspectives and their vivid colors. From these prints, Wright learned about what he called "the gospel of elimination of the insignificant" — how to strip away all but the essential elements in his own work.
Wright first visited Japan in 1905, when his career as a residential architect in the Midwest was flourishing. His Prairie house designs had philosophical similarities with Japanese architecture — the human scale, the simplicity, the natural materials — but they also had open plans that liberated space and movement, integrating the exterior and the interior in a dynamic, entirely American way.
While touring the Japanese countryside, Wright found confirmation of the organic design principles he had been developing for a decade. By organic, he meant an architecture of unity, reflecting a harmony between man and nature, between building and soil.
The architect returned to Japan several times in pursuit of prints before he was hired to build a new Imperial Hotel for Tokyo. Construction of the enormous project began in 1919, and over the next three years, some 2,000 drawings were produced. Many were resketched on the spot, since Wright found Japanese craftsmen to be "the finest in the world" and couldn't resist testing their limits.
But all the extra labor was worth it. When the hotel partially opened in 1922, it was quickly acknowledged to be the jewel of the Orient, just as its ads proclaimed. Wright had carefully calibrated the spatial compositions to surprise and delight at every turn, transporting guests into another world the moment they stepped into the entry foyer.
Wright had also devoted himself to making the building "doom-proof," and his efforts were amply rewarded. On the hotel's Grand Opening Day, Sept. 1, 1923, the Great Kanto Earthquake slammed into Tokyo, starting fires that leveled much of the city.
But the Imperial sustained only minor damage, allowing its staff to keep the building open and to provide meals to the thousands of homeless who sought refuge across the street in Hibiya Park. The Imperial's magnificence, and its legendary survival of the Kanto quake, made it an international landmark for 45 years. Yet the hotel was not the only Frank Lloyd Wright building to flourish despite the quake. [To be continued]
- landmark
- 象徴的建造物
- wrecking ball
- (建物解体用の)鉄球
- Frank Lloyd Wright
- フランク・ロイド・ライト(米建築家 1867-1959)
- Imperial Hotel
- 帝国ホテル
- rescue efforts
- 救助活動
- had rallied
- 〜を集めた
- marked
- 〜を印した
- appreciation
- 高い評価
- genius
- 才能
- architect
- 建築家
- fascination with 〜
- 〜に魅了されること
- prints
- 版画
- intoxicated
- 〜を酔わせた
- was drawn to 〜
- 〜に魅力を感じた
- abstract shapes
- 抽象的な形
- perspectives
- 遠近感
- gospel
- 信条
- elimination
- 排除すること
- the insignificant
- 重要でないこと
- strip away
- 〜をはぎ取る
- all but 〜
- 〜以外は
- Midwest
- 米中西部
- was flourishing
- 華やかだった
- Prairie house
- 草原住宅(=ゆるやかな傾斜の屋根と広い室内空間が特徴)
- philosophical
- 哲学的な
- human scale
- 人間の感覚・行動に合い、快適で安らぎを覚える規模
- open plans
- 開放感ある間取り
- integrating
- 〜を一体化させて
- found confirmation of 〜
- 〜を確信した
- organic
- 有機的な、自然な
- drawings
- 図面
- on the spot
- 現場で
- craftsmen
- 職人
- proclaimed
- うたった
- (had)calibrated 〜 to 〜
- 〜が〜をするよう計算していた
- spatial compositions
- 空間的な構成
- at every turn
- ひと足ごとに
- transporting 〜 into 〜
- 〜を〜へと誘って
- entry foyer
- ロビー
- doom-proof
- 凶運に耐えうる
- amply
- 十分に
- slammed into 〜
- 〜を襲った
- leveled
- 〜を焼け野原にした
- sustained
- 〜を被った
- magnificence
- 壮麗さ