Foreword

Higuchi, Tadahiko; Terry, Charles S.

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Foreword

Tadahiko Higuchi, Charles S. Terry (Translator)

The Visual and Spatial Structure of Landscapes

~In this book I have made an attempt to clarify the visual structure of landscapes. Visual structure in this instance was taken to mean the appearance of a given scene from a freely chosen point of observation; the indexes are concerned with the visibility or visual perception of landscapes. Since these indexes had to do with vision in general, they should be...

Author

Tadahiko Higuchi, Charles S. Terry (Translator)

PublisherMIT Press

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00164.002

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-16539

Foreword

In this book I have made an attempt to clarify the visual structure of landscapes. Visual structure in this instance was taken to mean the appearance of a given scene from a freely chosen point of observation; the indexes are concerned with the visibility or visual perception of landscapes. Since these indexes had to do with vision in general, they should be applicable to visual environments other than landscapes.

I do not attempt to deal with problems relating to form or composition, such as proportion, symmetry, or harmony. These remain for future consideration. The discussion of indexes touches on the sequential development of landscapes as the point of observation shifts, but the subject needs to be examined separately in the light of the findings presented here. Aside from these matters left for future consideration, the indexes introduced here should go a long way toward clarifying the basic visual characteristics of landscapes.

Seven classic types of Japanese landscape are abstracted from actual surveys and from documentary evidence, and an attempt is made to explain the significance of these types as well as to describe their spatial structures and the spatial elements of which they are composed. The conceptual schemes of Kevin Lynch and Christian Norberg-Schulz bear on certain compositional elements that determine the spatial structure of these landscape types. No doubt this analysis is possible because we are dealing with Japan which is rich in landscape beauty and variety. Our task in the future, however, will be to take these compositional elements into consideration in drawing up plans for land utilization and development, to devise optimal ways of using the intrinsic elements of landscapes to protect and preserve their identity.

To date all too little research has been done on spaces that are lived in or experienced—spaces that have been formed, ordered, and fulfilled by human habitation. One can only agree with O. F. Bollnow, who wrote:

It is surprising that in the development of philosophy and psychology over the past few decades, we have had a detailed exposition of experienced time, but almost nothing dealing with experienced space. There have, to be sure, been studies of spatial structures (visual space, audible space, and so on), as well as of the cognitive space that is constructed from these, but we have no amplification taking us into the real or total space as it is lived in and experienced. (Neue Geborgenheit, p. 171)

This unexplained hiatus is the treatise of Bollnow’s seminal work, which along with my examination of experienced space, has as its only supports the work of Lynch and Norberg-Schulz. Another future consideration will be to amplify the findings obtained here with respect to the seven classic spaces through applications to more concrete lived-in spaces.

Associated with the question of space as a support for man’s existence is the idea of landscape space as home, or homeland, aptly signified by the German term Heimat. The image of home, or homeland, in Japan today is laden with existentialist connotations and with the eminently contemporary question of alienation, loss of homeland. In considering the basic question of visibility or invisibility, I was led to questions of modern man’s very existence. I do not, however, end with a tidy conclusion, about the universality of specific individual problems but rather suggest newer, broader fields for consideration.

For designers—engineers, architects, urban planners, and gardeners—who are charged with implanting physical installations in a setting, it is basic and essential to grasp the nature of that setting as a visible spectacle and to understand its spatial structure. Yamaoka Yoshinori asked, “How can men talk to each other on land that has lost its spirit?” We must learn to exercise sensibility toward the terrains we deal with and to make sure that we do not destroy their spirit. Indeed, we will not arrive at truly beautiful visual surroundings until designers have learned to consider the natural terrain, the city, various architectural elements, and other visual factors as composing an integrated whole. If this work is of use to designers wishing to adopt this approach, it will have served its purpose.

This book evolved from my doctoral dissertation, Keikan no kōzō ni kansuru kisoteki kenkyū (“Basic Research on the Structure of Landscapes”), which was published in Japanese. I am grateful for the support and assistance of many teachers, colleagues, and friends. My thanks are due, first of all, to Professor Yasojima Yoshinosuke, my research counselor, who acted as my mentor and guide from the very inception of the project. I am also deeply indebted to Professor Ashihara Yoshinobu, Professor Suzuki Tadayoshi, and Assistant Professor Nakamura Yoshio for their innumerable criticisms and suggestions. Cooperating with me on the research that went into the chapters on depth and angles of depression were Shinohara Osamu and Satō Hironori. Valuable advice came also from Assistant Professor Shioda Satoshi and from Yamaoka Yoshinori.

Professor Kevin Lynch assisted me not only by speaking of my work to his colleagues in America and Europe but by introducing me to The MIT Press. Without his help and that of Professors Ashihara and Hoshino Ikumi, publication in English would not have been possible. Nor would I have had the courage to pursue the possibility of an English version had it not been for the kind urging of Professor Philip Thiel.

For preparing the English text, I am grateful to Charles S. Terry, who undertook not merely to render into English what I had written but to make the numerous allusions and quotations comprehensible to readers lacking a deep knowledge of Japanese history and culture. I should like also to express thanks to Mizushima Takashi who provided many of the photographs, to Nagase Katsumi and Nishaya Naoka who drew a large number of the illustrations, to my secretary, Sato Yoshiko, and to Miyazaki Shinobu of Gihōdō Shuppan who published the Japanese edition.

Finally, I wish to acknowledge with deep thanks the research grant provided by the Kajima Foundation to cover the cost of translation.

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