I introduced about Bruno Taut last blog, I write about the “Atami Villa (Kyu Huga Villa)” this time.

The client was Mr. Rihei Hyuga who was active in trade business in Asia. FYI – the wooden two-storied main house was designed by Jin Watanabe who also designed Wako department in Ginza, the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno and Aichi prefectural office. I think the client Mr. Hyuga knew about art & culture very well and had a nice sense of beauty. Also I heard that Mr. Hyuga said “You can design whatever you want no matter how much it costs” to Taut. Such a dream project it was that the client trusted Taut, left all of it up to Taut and no money restriction. I think client’s understanding for design is necessary to create something great.

This Atami Villa is well know as a “A cellar of the annex” but I think “A guest room for social place” is more suitable for this space. Because there are three rooms and there is also a big window that you can see the Pacific Ocean, it is very luxurious “cellar”.

Atami (a pleasant seaside resort west of Tokyo in Shizuoka Prefecture) is famous as nice Onsen area, also it attracts attention as great architectures for architecture lovers.
I visited MOA art museum and Bruno Taut “Atami Villa” (official name is Kyu Hyuga Bettei).

First talking about Bruno Taut, he was a German architect and his style is categorized Expressionism. He was active as an avant-garde architect in Berlin. He was also active as a city planner by designing housing complexes. You can live his house still now but it is difficult to live there because it is very popular.

He went to the Soviet Union but he returned to Berlin after a few years, then he headed to Switzerland in order to escape persecution with the emergence of Nazi. He arrived in Japan after Turkey and European countries, invited by Japan International Architecture. He was raised in Europe where Japonism was a heyday. Perhaps his dream came true to come to his dream country Japan.

In 1930, he arrive in Tsuruga, Fukui prefecture and he had a fateful encounter in Kyoto. He met “Katsura Imperial Villa”. He expressed the villa “It makes me almost cry, it is so beautiful…” All his ideal design was there. He was the first person who introduced Katsura Imperial Villa to the world, he wrote about it some books. I have a lot about the villa but not this time.

The world is becoming more digital but I still use mail system such as letters or postcards. I go to a post office sometimes and always check design stamps there. There are many kinds of stamps seasonal ones, limited ones, characters, traditional Japanese drawings etc. Also they change the designs often.

It is so fun to see the design in a small space, there are stamps with sheets. Some stamps make one design. I’ve heard that there are only seven stamp designers in Japan!

Design stamps (seals) were sold in Denmark in 1904 first. Einar Holbøll, a Danish postal clerk developed the idea of adding an extra charitable stamp on mailed holiday greetings during Christmas. The money raised to help children who are sick with tuberculosis. Since then, the stamps have been sold during Christmas season every year, and it has also spread from Denmark to Scandinavia, Europe, America, and Asia. Now around 80 countries participate the activity.

I have worked for over fifteen years as a graphic and digital designer, and I still LOVE to design.

Maybe people think that “design” is act of making visual things (surface decoration) mainly, but the word includes a wide range of activities such as planning, making plans, concept working, making structure.

In actual projects, I spend 70-80% of time on “researching or thinking”, and the rest of 20-30% of time is for “making something visible” with Mac.  (I think most of people think this one is “design”.)

I think that going to book shops or museums, going on a journey if needed, even taking walk is even wonderful part of job, because these are all researching or thinking act. There is always a project in the head, and it seems that the directions is decided through various experiences.