Brutalist Architecture and Sloping Gardens

Hi everyone. It’s good to be back! Yuko and I spent the last week in New Zealand attending the wedding of a couple of dear friends and travelling all the way up the north island from Wellington up to Auckland. It was our first time to visit New Zealand and it certainly won’t be the last. Everyone we met (apart from a couple of grumpy drivers) was so friendly, the scenery was beautiful and, to be honest, it was nice to just get away and forget about the house for a bit!

Since we have been back, the builders have sent us some more pictures and it seems that progress has been really swift. The concrete walls around the parking space have been completed and it is a hefty structure indeed. You should be able to see in the pictures below that there are a number of circles in the concrete. This is a result of the concrete pouring process but they are actually considered by many Japanese people to be a cool design aesthetic. You can actually buy wallpaper in Japan to replicate the concrete + holes look! I rather like the idea that this type of concrete design falls into the so-called brutalist subset of Japanese architecture. It’s a pretty neat juxtaposition against the pretty wooden house that will sit above.

The next stage of pictures were sent through yesterday and show how the land surrounding the parking space has been back filled and compacted and also the construction of the two slopes, one for the steps leading up to the house and the other for our sloped garden. If you recall, the sloped garden was a later addition since the planning department required the demolition of the top two large stone retaining walls on the west side of the plot. Originally we had wanted to keep these but we were out of luck when the earthquake happened and planning applications were all revisited.

What started out as the only cost-effective solution to a big problem is actually starting to look pretty good and we really like the way the stone wall curves round at the bottom, giving an indication of what was there previously. The slope itself is pretty steep but some well-placed steps (perhaps sunken railway sleepers) should give us good access to any plants that we want to grow there. Grass and a nice tree would be another option but I can quite easily imagine children or drunk house guests rolling down it and landing in a heap of broken bones in the road below. We really need to give this part some more thought.

Next week is a once-in-a-generation 10-day long set of public holidays and weekends, which means that work will stop for a while at the end of this week. Expect another update in about a fortnight when things get moving again and I have some photos of this week’s work, which is mainly some testing of the new back filled land and preparations for the steps and house foundations. To those in Japan, have a fantastic Golden Week whether you are here or abroad. To everyone else, check back soon for more updates!

A place to park

It’s been a busy couple of weeks with the start of April representing perhaps the busiest time in the Japanese calendar. For some bizarre reason, almost all contracts in Japan begin on the 1^st April, the official start of the Japanese working year, which means everyone starting new jobs does so at the same time. Moving companies increase their prices two or three times, the rental property market goes crazy and even those staying on in the same jobs are not immune from the chaos, with preparations being frantically made for the start of the year to come.

As such, we’ve both been very busy with work so haven’t had much chance to get to the land lately but we did manage to sneak in a visit last Saturday on our way to do hanami (cherry blossom viewing) in Nara. Progress has been pretty immense, with the retaining wall supports now completed and work starting on the modified parking space.

Just as a reminder, below is what the parking space looked like before the old house was torn down – a pretty narrow space with the red monstrosity looming ominously above it, no doubt ready to buckle and crush the car waiting underneath.

And here it is, post-demolition, with a typical Japanese mama-chari bicycle for scale. Much better but still rather a tricky angle and only enough room for a small car.

As you may recall, we opted to make significant modifications to the land to accommodate two cars (one full size regular car and one smaller kei car, which are considerably cheaper to run and more suited for short trips). We felt that this was a good investment in the land and would make our lives living in the house significantly easier.

What we hadn’t realized until we actually started building was what a colossal task this actually is. The hole we talked about a couple of posts back just kept getting bigger and bigger.

Eventually, when we had finally reached the correct size, stepped concrete bases were filled. You will notice that the base on the left-hand side is higher than on the right. This is to allow the builders to contour the parking space to take into account the slope of the hill on which the land sits, which should make parking easier and allow for better drainage.

The wooden sheeting (not sure what this is called) was soon erected and attached to the metal rebar structure which will eventually support the concrete. The first thing we noticed is how high this is! We knew the wall was high but it was something else to see it with our own eyes. Eventually the wall will come up to the top horizontal metal beam.

It’s a pretty impressive structure from the road and really does make the whole plot look like the base for a castle (every Englishman is supposed to have a castle, right?). Equally impressive is the view from the top, kindly provided by our builders, since neither of us had our mountaineering gear ready. It gives some idea as to the elevation that we are talking from the road. Considering that the top of the house will be about 7 metres above that, we should have pretty good views of the surrounding landscape.

That about brings us up to where we are now. Concrete is being poured this week and will need some time to cure before they start work on backfilling the stairs which will go to the left of the parking space. That should begin early next week but we will be outside Japan for a wedding, so expect a fresh update in about a fortnight.

A final quick note to those reading, following and commenting on the various Facebook groups and webpages where this blog has been discussed. Thank you all for engaging and sharing this experience with us. It’s been a great ride so far and we’re looking forward to the next few months.