Cardus Edição 37, 01-08-2018

Curtain House, Tokyo Japan

I read about a house with external walls made of fabrics, or curtains, on the news several years ago. The architect that came up with such a concept was Shigeru Ban, some sort of star architect. I am not sure if he was already famous at the time of the design of the curtain house.

The particular house I am writing about, was built in a suburb of Tokyo. After completion it looked something like the picture above.

The architectural reviews were forthcoming:

“The extreme audacity Curtain Wall House to house the studio and home of their client, demonstrating a surprisingly simple and beautiful amalgam of the old and the new, combining contemporary materials in new interpretations of traditional Japanese styles,” someone wrote;

“In this project, also known as Case Study House 07, the architect develops a real wise logic analysis and design prior to question something as fundamental as the walls. Ban has taken the idea of the curtain wall that originated from Mies van der Rohe, an outer skin covering the building without structural features to a whole new level,” someone else wrote.

Not surprisingly, when I did a stopover in Tokyo, between Sydney and Lisbon, and since I had time at my disposal I decided to jump on public transport and see the famous house with my own eyes. Sounds like a great experience and I was looking forward to see it with my own eyes.

Tokyo is a massive city but it wasn’t that difficult to get to the house. The address was well documented. I’m always dazzled to notice how tidy and smallish everything is in Tokyo, and walking towards this house rendered similar observations.

I arrived to my destination, eventually. Below is my own picture of what I saw. I have my own interpretations of what happened, but I let you be the judge of that.

Helder Cardeira.