Saturday, February 24, 2007

igia, linear village

"Japanese linear village: a beautifully articulated spine of growth. Each of the units that is repeated along the street has similar elements: a large communal entry, house, courtyard, and fields. This kind of village is universal and frequently seen in the East." --Fumihiko Maki, Notes on Collective Form

I really wanted to see this village but Maki-San told me that he had gotten the image from a colleague and didn't know where it was. In any case, rural streets widened for automobiles have disrupted or destroyed most traditional linear developments. Luckily, Gunter Nitschke cites the same image (and provides a figure-ground plan) in his 1966 article on "ma" in the magazine Architectural Design. Its name is Igia, although I'm still not sure where to find it.