The summer house is sited on a plateau in a moun-

tainous region one hundred miles northwest of Tokyo,

an area popular with first-generation urbanites seek

ing to return to the countryside after the Great Kanto

Earthquake of 1923.' The east to west plan takes full

advantage of the solar exposure and surrounding views.

As Antonin Raymond noted, "The winters being sunny,

the sun's rays are used for heating the house, making

it advisable to have large southern openings. On the

north and west sides, however, openings are reserved

for summer cross ventilation and lighting only."2

Raymond installed his patented sliding door system

on the east and south facades. This technique described

as shin hazushi, uses tracks for sliding doors and win-

dows that are independent from structural members.

The doors and windows can retract completely out

of view into an adjacent recess, removing the barrier

between interior and exterior. Bedrooms in the eastern

wing facing the rising sun are enclosed with this system.

The kitchen and corridor connect the bedrooms to the

main wing, which is adjacent to a central dipping pool

The pool supports evaporative cooling, as the natural

airflow rises through the house, pulling the water-cooled

air inward. The water, flowing from a well on the north

side of the house, supplies the kitchen, bathroom, and

pool, which is allowed to overflow when filled. The

spilling water drains downward across the yard, into the

pond on the southern side of the site. The main living

space, with a view of Mount Asama to the west, opens

to the south using the shin hazushi technique.3 In his own

description of the house, Raymond remarked, "I shall

never forget that first meal; the scent of the new wood;

the immaculate table of freshly planed hinoki; and the

grays and reds of the simple glazed ware upon it. The

sliding doors had slid away, and the whole plain and

distant mountains, ridge behind ridge, lay before us as

part of the space we were in."

The house is a traditional post-and-beam structure

employing local materials and Japanese joinery. The

aggregate for the concrete retaining walls is locally

excavated lava stone. Thatch covers a standard galva-

nized metal roof to reduce noise during heavy rain

and heat gain during the summer months. The house

is elevated on posts to allow air circulation below.

Reed blinds and thatch overhangs provide another

means of environmental control

47

Raymond modeled the house in part after Le

Corbusier's unbuilt design for Maison de M. Errazuriz

in Chile (1930), employing a butterfly roof and internal

ramp, with the two architectural elements aligning

at the hinge point, as in Corbusier's iconic cross section

for the Chilean project. Raymond demonstrates how

local strategies of construction and materiality can

be used to adapt modernist architectural concepts to

various locations and climates.