TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF ANTONIN RAYMOND'S "ARCHITECTURAL IDENTITY" : A STUDY BASED ON THE ARCHITECT'S WAY OF THINKING AND WAY OF DESIGN

Abstract

This thesis presents a study on the way of thinking and way of design of the Czech born architect Antonin Raymond (1888-1976). The data used for this study was a series of lectures and articles written by Raymond between 1935 and 1967 and original architectural drawings and photographs. These documents were all collected personally by the author at Raymond’s former studio in Karuizawa and Architectural Office in Tokyo. These documents provide a new source of information on Raymond’s residential work and have been compiled in an electronic database available with the thesis. The database includes architectural drawings, original and contemporary photographs, and general information on a majority of the residential works designed by Raymond between 1920 and 1938. The aim of this thesis is to answer the following question: what is the core quality or concept that identifies a work of architecture as Raymond’s? In order to answer this question, the thesis presents a study on the identity of Antonin Raymond as an architect, which the author has chosen to refer to as “Architectural Identity”. The essential quality of Raymond’s “Architectural Identity” is defined through the study of the architect’s way of thinking, way of design, and the relationship between the two. These three elements are considered by the author as the three components of “Architectural Identity”. For the study of Raymond’s way of design, the thesis focuses on one residential project, which is Raymond’s own summer house, built in Karuizawa in 1933.