The “Japanese Landscape Inside”: The Transition of Architectural Spaces

Japanese traditional architecture from its origins is harmonized with the natural environment. The relation with the landscape has its roots to the Heian period, where the connection between the interior and the exterior space was important. The landscape is inserted to the interior, rather than excluded, due to a variety of means such as shoji, bamboo screens, balconies, entrances and verandas or open corridors (EN). The physical and symbolic use of the Japanese landscape finds its maximum expression in the architectural space of the traditional buildings, in all its forms; the outer space and the inside are deeply interconnected and at the same time separated through a gradual transition process, which has as its main principle the connection between the man and the landscape, where the building, as a construction and physical model and as a social expression becomes the medium. The fusion between exterior and interior, thus forms a spatial continuity, typical of the dedicated places as for example the tea ceremony room (茶道). So Japanese architecture recalls some of the concepts exposed by Robert Venturi in his “Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture”, such as the equilibrium generated between opposites, which in this case are inside and outside, which live in perfect continuity. This paper aims to comprehend the traditional Japanese architecture related to the landscape while investigating the design, the constructive choices and the adopted technologies, achieving awareness thanks to the fundamental instrument of representation.