Junichiro Tanizaki’s 1933 essay on aesthetics was a source of inspiration for an exhibition I curated at the Victoria and Albert Museum last year, 1:1 – Architects Build Small Spaces.
We commissioned seven international architects to build full-scale structures in the museum’s galleries. Investigating notions of refuge, retreat and contemplation, their buildings allowed visitors to explore the power of small spaces.
These themes echo the sentiments expressed in Tanizaki’s wide ranging essay – written at a time when western innovation was encroaching on the traditions of Japanese design and culture.
The text celebrates the beauty of nuance and the joys discovered in the ephemeral details of everyday life. His observations of the world offer an insight into what it means to dwell within, as opposed to simply inhabit, a built space.
Likening a Japanese room to an inkwash painting, Tanizaki describes the “inhaling” and “exhaling” of light and darkness, and the sculpting of spatial solids and voids to create dwelling spaces of reflection and meditation.
“Whenever I see the alcove of a tastefully built Japanese room, I marvel at our comprehension of the secrets of shadows… when we gaze into the darkness we are overcome with the feeling that in this small corner there reigns complete and utter silence; that here in the darkness immutable tranquillity holds sway.”
Abraham Thomas is the curator of designs at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the lead curator for architecture
We commissioned seven international architects to build full-scale structures in the museum’s galleries. Investigating notions of refuge, retreat and contemplation, their buildings allowed visitors to explore the power of small spaces.
These themes echo the sentiments expressed in Tanizaki’s wide ranging essay – written at a time when western innovation was encroaching on the traditions of Japanese design and culture.
The text celebrates the beauty of nuance and the joys discovered in the ephemeral details of everyday life. His observations of the world offer an insight into what it means to dwell within, as opposed to simply inhabit, a built space.
Likening a Japanese room to an inkwash painting, Tanizaki describes the “inhaling” and “exhaling” of light and darkness, and the sculpting of spatial solids and voids to create dwelling spaces of reflection and meditation.
“Whenever I see the alcove of a tastefully built Japanese room, I marvel at our comprehension of the secrets of shadows… when we gaze into the darkness we are overcome with the feeling that in this small corner there reigns complete and utter silence; that here in the darkness immutable tranquillity holds sway.”
Abraham Thomas is the curator of designs at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the lead curator for architecture
