yodoko guest house

1. YODOKO GUEST HOUSE
(AMERICAN + JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE) F.L. WRIGHT

2. Introduction
• Designed by F.L.Wright, when he came to Japan from 1915 to 1922 to design the Imperial
Hotel.
• As a second house for the family of Yamamura, a famous sake brewer in Nada, Kobe.
• The construction was carried out from 1923 to 1924 with the execution design and supervision
by two disciples of Wright, Arata Endo and Makoto Minami.

3. • Site Area:About 4700 ㎡
Total Floor Area:542.43 ㎡
• Is the only surviving Frank Lloyd Wright residence in Japan.
• The guest house was designed in 1918, and construction was completed six years
later.
• Set into a hilltop in Ashiva, overlooking the Port of Kobe in western Japan.
• The exterior evokes Wright's Los Angeles textile block houses, but its decorative
blocks are of Oya stone, not concrete.
• In 1947, the house became the property of Yodogawa Steel Works, Ltd., and was
used as an official residence for the company president.
• It was the first Taishō period building in Japan to be named an Important Cultural
Property, in 1974.
• It was opened to the public as Yodokō Guest House in 1989.
• The building was damaged due to the Great Hanshin earthquake in 1995, but was
subsequently repaired and has been re-opened.

4. 1918 Basic design finished.
1923 Construction work started.
February 1924 Roof-raising.
Mid-1924 Construction work completed.
1935 Became the property of Shigejiro Amaki as his second house. Used as a
socializing place for the occupation forces after the war.
1947 Became the property of YODOGAWA STEEL WORKS, LTD.., and was used
as an official residence for the company president.
1959 Rented out to Americans.
1971-1973 Used as an apartment for single employees of YODOGAWA STEEL
WORKS, LTD..
May 1974 Designated a National Important Cultural Property.
1981 Research carried out.
July 1985-November 1988
Repair construction for preservation carried out.
December 1988 Construction completed.
June 1989 Opened to the public as YODOKO GUEST HOUSE.
January 1995 Partially damaged due to the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake.
June 1995-March 1998
Research and repair construction carried out.
March 1998 Construction completed.
May 1998 Again opened to the public.

5. Approach: Driveway from
Southwest
• Although the house is four stories high in total, every section of the building is
one or two stories high because the floors overlap like a staircase along with the
inclination of the ridge.

6. Approach
• The approach to YODOKO GUEST HOUSE is very unique to Wright’s
works.
• Unlike the usual houses where the entrance is near the road, the
entrance of this house is located at the remotest part of the building.

7. • Oyaishi stone - for the exterior of the porch.
It is an open porch, flat on the ceiling, provides a clear view of
the other side of the porch.
Approach:
Porch

8. Entranc
e
• Water trickles down from a stone pillar embedded in the wall and flows
into the small pit engraved on the stone.
• “Organic architecture”
• This tastefully imitates a natural stream welling out of mountain rocks.
FALLING WATER ??

9. Drawing
room
• Large fixed windows on each side.
• Small windows in series on top of them.
• Built-in couches for specific view angles.

10. Drawing room: Northern
side
• Large fireplace made of Oyaishi stone.
• Three fireplaces when Wright designed it, and one added later.
• “It is relaxing to watch a clear fire in the depths of the massive
stone masonry of a building.”---- Wright

11. Drawing room (second
floor)
• Narrow doorway to the drawing room (62 cm in width),
• Sandwiched between a decorative fireplace and an Oyaishi
stone pillar.
• Other side of this narrow spot, a spacious room with high
ceilings.

12. Hallway(third floor) : Inside-
Outside
• Large windows reaching the floor.
• Instead of ordinary sash windows, Wright
adopted rare swing-out windows.
• “Inside-Outside”

13. Japanese-style room (third
floor)
• Three main rooms on the 3rd floor are all Japanese-
style rooms with tatami floors.
• Not included in Wright’s original design.
• Strong request from the client.
• Decorative copper plates transoms.

14. Stairs
(North)
• The wall of the staircase from the Japanese-style room on the
third floor to the fourth floor is made of clay.
• The clay wall -- Japanese wall construction technique
• For wooden buildings -- clay is coated onto frames made of
bamboo trees.
• Eastern entrance wall and the walls on the western side of the
Japanese-style rooms are also of clay.

15. Dining room (fourth
floor)
• The dining room -- most decorated room.
• Square shape.
• Geometrical figures
• Wooden decorations.

16. Dining room (fourth
floor):
Decorations

17. Balcony / Roof top :
The door on the southern side of the dining room
leads to the balcony.

18. Arch of the
balcony
• The rooftops of the second and third floors are
used as balconies.
• Connected to each other with an arched stairs.
• Low ceiling -- functions just like the doorway of the
drawing room.
View from
balcony

19. • Both have out-of box plans.
• Use of terrain for the structure.
• Effect of trickling water in YOKODO GUEST HOUSE, similar to FALLING WATER.
• Large Balconies, and rooftops in both.
• Built in such a way that visitor appreciates the building as one drives towards it.
• It seems as an experimental project before FALLING WATER’s construction.
YOKODO GUEST
HOUSE
FALLING
WATER
COMPARISO
N:

20. THANK YOU
Agresh Shrivastava, Kumar Snehansu
10110002, 10110029
B.Arch IIIrd yr