Frank Lloyd Wright is a world famous American architect in 20th century who designed more than 1,000 works. His most famous works are Fallingwater and the Guggenheim museum in New York. He is called one of the three great master of modern construction only with Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. His works are in USA, Canada and Japan only in the world. In Japan, the most famous of his works is Imperial hotel but it is no longer exists. However, there is a still exist his work that called “Jiyu-Gakuen”.
The building was built in 1921 in Tokyo. The building used to be school, which called “Jiyu-Gakuen” which, means freedom. The concept is simple: to be a happy place for children. The building is small, but it is very a refined environment to visit as it is located in very quiet place in middle of an urban city yet only 5-minute walk from Ikebukuro Station. It is now open to the public when not in use for weddings and other events.
The building has some interesting characteristics. The building has 2 wings and it has an inverted U- shape structure, which was inspired by a Japanese temple called “Byodo-in”. The windows face south onto an open courtyard, with the symmetrical wings on the east and west. The central part of the building is twice as high as the wings. Jiyu-Gakuen is constructed by 2 x 4 wood. The floor is also made of wood and when people are walking, the floor is creaky giving it an old flavor. Some parts made by stone such as part of wall and pillar. These materials create warm atmosphere.
The visitor can find a lot of his original design in the details. He is one of the first an architect to design windows frame or furniture in the building. He try to get consistency between the site location and the building, so he created some pattern such as windows frame, light and furniture in the building and these are composed of geometric line. For example, the window frame is beginning full of sunlight to inside, and it also reminds the shoji pattern, and the chair consists of hexagonal shapes.
If you come to near here, you should visit the great building any weather is fine, because the building has high potentials to receive your expectation. You can walk each rooms to look at his style, and you can enjoy to drink a cup of coffee or tea with on the chair which is off cause Wright’s design.
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