By Steven Whitney, AIA

Upon his graduation from the University of Southern California with a B. Arch., Steven Whitney was awarded a traveling fellowship to study "how interior space is perceptually extended into the landscape" in some of the temples and teahouses of Kyoto, Japan. What follows is a collection of excerpts from the sketchbook he produced on his tour.

Introduction

By good fortune, in the summer of 1990, I was able to travel to Japan to study settings whose building and garden architectures were truly inspiring and educational. I was in Japan for seven weeks, during which time I experienced everything from the hectic nature of Tokyo to the serene mountain setting of a Zazen meditation center. Everything from the harsh memories in Hiroshima to uplifting hope for the future in an exhibition dedicated to the peaceful coexistence of technology and Nature, in Osaka. Everything from the materialism of shopping centers to the spiritual settings of temples. Everything from crowded city buses and subways, to walking essentially alone for hours on the outskirts of cities. However, one place remained most meaningful to me.

Throughout this great variety of experiences, I always enjoyed most returning to the temples, the teahouses, and their gardens. A different world existed there. A world of great care and beauty. A world of discipline and generosity. A world where nationality and language were no longer relevant. A world where individualism and ego disappeared, and unity began to appear. A unity of me and others, of building and garden, and of interior and exterior spaces. I hope that the following study of the unity of these spaces and settings can serve to add to our architectural potentials to connect ourselves with the world around us.

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