The Aesthetic Townscape

Japan's most celebrated architects, develops in this book a cross-cultural perspective on how people actually perceive and experience the urban environments they come into contact with. The Aesthetic Townscapespans East and West, ranging from traditional villages of Japan, dwellings of the Italian Apulia, and gardens of the Aegean islands to New York, Chandigarh, and Brasilia. It compares and contrasts the handling of such spatial elements as walls, floors, and doorways in different cultures, and considers the demarcations between interior and exterior, private and public spaces in both modern and ancient architecture and town planning. The book is extensively illustrated with night scenes, squares, residential neighborhoods, landmark structures - and with maps, plans, and drawings. Mr. Ashihara holds the chair of architecture at the University of Tokyo and is president of Yoshinobu Ashihara Architect & Associates.Ashihara, Yoshinobu is the author of 'The Aesthetic Townscape', published 1984 under ISBN 9780262510318 and ISBN 0262510316.