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CONTEXT AND BUILDING (UPGRADED)

CONTEXT & BUILDING

Context is simply an external element that influences the building and site both. Contextual factors include the nature of the surroundings that is natural and built elements. Basically the context determines the architectural style,building material selection and site layout, which is very important in creating an effective design. All these promote continuity between the building and local circumstances.

Buildings itself do not exist in isolation. They are conceived to house, support, and inspire a range of human activities in response to socio cultural, economical, and political needs, and are erected in natural and built environments that constrain as well as offer opportunities for development.

“Cities are made by planning, and architecture can do nothing without such plans.” –Le Corbusier

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Asakusa Culture Tourist Information Centre - Kengo Kuma


Within the eight-storey building, one can make out, in elevation, silhouetted permutations of Japan’s vernacular dwellings: the machiya (townhouse), the ageya (house of entertainment) and the row-house called nagaya, to name a few.
As a composition in stacked strata, Kuma takes what otherwise would be a fragmented heap and cloaks it in his signature facade of long vertical members, a reinterpretation of traditional lattice frontages. Not only does this provide a concise image of the overall building, but it also delicately lightens the entire form.

Like any centre for culture, it provides spaces allocated for exhibitions, meetings and intimate conferences, as well as a theatre with informal tiered seating rising up from the floor. As the ACTIC is receptive to international tourism, it is a multi-lingual portal to the history and traditions of the district and the larger ward of Taito. Beyond its mandate of ‘finding, showing and supporting’, it provides new, unobstructed vantage points of the area.


Throughout the interior are moments of delicate crafting. These include the black, sheer window coverings by textile designer Yoko Ando, who also designed the coverings for Toyo Ito’s Tama Art University library; the horizontal, undulating wood panelling on the east wall of the second floor, revealing storage drawers for concealing stocks of printed materials; and, at basement level, rear-illuminated glass panels decorated with woodblock-printed patterns, known as Edo Chiyogami, originally found on paper dating back to Japan’s Edo period (1603–1867).
And yet within its clever reinterpretations of Japanese aesthetic sensibilities, the overall stacking, hollowing and refilling of historical forms speak to a sensibility that is uniquely Kuma’s own.


CONCLUSION

For designers to create any good building design, it is important that we need to know what is already there before, and need to add anything new. Context is an important factor for the health of user. We should therefore carefully consider the contextual forces that a site presents in planning the design and construction of the buildings.

 REFERENCE

 1. http://www.academia.edu/2040500/How_Important_Is_Context_In_Contemporary_Architectural_Design

 2. https://inhabitat.com/kengo-kuma-designs-a-layered-asakusa-culture-tourist-information-center-in-tokyo/

 3. http://www.archdaily.com/251370/asakusa-culture-and-tourism-center-kengo-kuma-associates

 4. https://www.designboom.com/architecture/kengo-kuma-wins-the-design-for-va-at-dundee/
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