Fragile or Anti Rational Architecture

I had opportunity to attend and hear project to preserve the architectural heritage of Trabzon City, Turkey, by Ms. Elif Berna Var of National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo, at the expanded study meeting of the Subcommittee of Comparative Study on Dwelling Culture, AIJ.

Turkey was the first place for me to go abroad and has traveled south from Istanbul to the Aegean Sea. I have never been to Trabzon on the Black Sea coast, but I once read a book on Turkish architecture on the Black Sea coast for a book review.

Various discussions were held there, but one thing that left an impression on me was why in a private house in Trabzon, stones were piled up on a wooden rigid frame structure to make a wall surface.

The stone is heavy. It is also difficult to stack in an irregular shape. But why do humans do that great thing? It is not a place where only stones are produced.

Perhaps there is some reason that cannot be measured by economic efficiency, functionality, or rationality. And there are many buildings in the world that cannot be measured by these modern majors.

For the time being, we call it "anti-rational architecture."

And we will explore that such architecture is the most comfortable one for human beings.