ニュー合板タウン
工業製品である構造用合板は、桂剥きによって生まれる「リピートする木目」が特徴であり、それは強度確保と生産効率によって生まれる形になります。また、東京都心から電車で1時間圏内に点在するニュータウンは、大量生産型の住宅を一括で開発することで利便性を保ちつつコストを抑えていて、それはまさに合板の「均一化による経済効率」が形になったものです。
「ニュー合板タウン」のリサーチのため訪れたいくつかのニュータウンは、期待していたほど画一的で無味な街ではありませんでした。住宅が整然と並ぶ中に多くの緑地が点在し、向こうに山、こちらには水辺が広がる。雲がたなびく空と新しい家々に夕焼けがよく映えていました。ニュータウンと合板はどちらも大量生産の冷たさを持ちながら、一方で有機的な自然を含んでおり、人工と自然の狭間に揺れる存在です。合板に雲がたなびくと、量産型の家々の街並みにも山がのぞき、霞立ち、せせらぎが聞こえてきます。
日本人にとって、いまや立ち並ぶ建売り住宅地が、郷愁の原風景になりつつある、そんな合板の風景です。
<構造用合板にレーザー、ステイン>
<laser on structural plywood, wood stain>
Plywood Suburbs
Structural plywood, an industrial product, is characterized by the "repeating wood grain" which is the result of industrial manufacturing process for strength and production efficiency. Likewise, the "New Towns"(suburban city area) have been developed with mass-produced housing which is designed to keep low costs . This is a same manifestation of the "economic efficiency through standardization" seen in plywood.
Several New Towns(an hour from central Tokyo) I visited as part of my research for "Plywood Suburbs" were not as uniform or bland as I had expected. Amid the neatly arranged houses, there are numerous green spaces, with mountains in the distance and waterfronts nearby. The evening sunset reflected beautifully off the new homes, with clouds drifting across the sky. Both New Towns and plywood carry the coldness of mass production, yet they also contain an organic, natural quality, swaying between the artificial and the natural. When clouds drift across plywood, mountains peek through the rows of mass-produced homes, mist rises, and the sound of a stream can be heard.
For the Japanese people, the rows of newly built homes are becoming a nostalgic landscape, a plywood landscape that evokes memories of the past.
「ニュー合板タウン」のリサーチのため訪れたいくつかのニュータウンは、期待していたほど画一的で無味な街ではありませんでした。住宅が整然と並ぶ中に多くの緑地が点在し、向こうに山、こちらには水辺が広がる。雲がたなびく空と新しい家々に夕焼けがよく映えていました。ニュータウンと合板はどちらも大量生産の冷たさを持ちながら、一方で有機的な自然を含んでおり、人工と自然の狭間に揺れる存在です。合板に雲がたなびくと、量産型の家々の街並みにも山がのぞき、霞立ち、せせらぎが聞こえてきます。
日本人にとって、いまや立ち並ぶ建売り住宅地が、郷愁の原風景になりつつある、そんな合板の風景です。
<構造用合板にレーザー、ステイン>
<laser on structural plywood, wood stain>
Plywood Suburbs
Structural plywood, an industrial product, is characterized by the "repeating wood grain" which is the result of industrial manufacturing process for strength and production efficiency. Likewise, the "New Towns"(suburban city area) have been developed with mass-produced housing which is designed to keep low costs . This is a same manifestation of the "economic efficiency through standardization" seen in plywood.
Several New Towns(an hour from central Tokyo) I visited as part of my research for "Plywood Suburbs" were not as uniform or bland as I had expected. Amid the neatly arranged houses, there are numerous green spaces, with mountains in the distance and waterfronts nearby. The evening sunset reflected beautifully off the new homes, with clouds drifting across the sky. Both New Towns and plywood carry the coldness of mass production, yet they also contain an organic, natural quality, swaying between the artificial and the natural. When clouds drift across plywood, mountains peek through the rows of mass-produced homes, mist rises, and the sound of a stream can be heard.
For the Japanese people, the rows of newly built homes are becoming a nostalgic landscape, a plywood landscape that evokes memories of the past.
