Yukio Nishimura from the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Urban Engineering, delivers the Pearl Fellow Lecture on Friday, Oct. 30 at 5:15 p.m. in the Pearl Hall auditorium. Nishimura’s lecture is Japan’s World Heritage Wooden Structures: Preservation and Authenticity. Pearl Hall, home of the UNM School of Architecture and Planning, is located on Cornell and Central NE.
Japan, with its abundant forests, has one of the world’s greatest traditions of building in wood. Wood is used ingeniously to craft a wide range of structures from farmers’ and merchants’ houses to multi-arched bridges, castles, shrines and temples and many other types of buildings.
In his beautifully illustrated presentation, Nishimura discusses the range of Japan’s wooden architecture and its special structural and design features, highlighting structures inscribed on the UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
He will also discuss how preservation of wooden structures, in a land of high rainfall and relentless deterioration, poses particular challenges. The need to replace individual wooden members makes the retention of all historic fabric – the gospel of preservation in the West – difficult. Instead, the continuation of carpentry and craftsmanship traditions from one generation to the next becomes crucial to maintaining authenticity.
Chester Liebs, adjunct professor, School of Architecture and Planning, said that Nishimura has advised communities all over Asia on challenges relating to conserving both their cultural and natural heritage including, but not limited to, facilitating tourism and/or economic development while protecting local traditions.
Liebs said that the Japanese culture, much like the Native American cultures, sees deep sacred meaning in nature. “Many community based projects there involve protecting things natural as well as cultural. Nishimura sensei brings a holistic view embracing both,” he said.
Nishimura’s master’s and doctoral programs draw students from Japan, as well as East Asia including China, Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand, places where he also advises communities using “machizukuri,” holistic community building.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at October 26, 2009 03:52 PM