How Do Materials Perceive Time? — Temporal Architecture Theory Chapter 2

Architecture is made of materials.
And materials perceive time in their own different ways.

As concrete is exposed to the elements, it gradually carves time into its surface.
Iron rusts, paint changes, and they leave behind traces of time as their expression.

Materials are not merely substances.
Each possesses its own unique time.

However, for me, there is a special material.
That is wood.

For me, wood was a material that was always close to my daily life.

My family home was a carpenter's house that had continued since my grandfather's generation,
and my grandfather was the master carpenter who led many other carpenters in the region.

My father succeeded him and ran the construction business.

Right next to the house was a workshop,
and for me, it was like a secret base.

It was a steel-framed building,
but to me as a child, it felt like a very large space.

When no one was around,
I liked to sneak inside and touch the scent of the wood.

The thin wood shavings planed by the sawmill
were as beautiful as translucent paper, and they felt light and fluffy when touched.

In the workshop, various carpenter's tools such as planes and saws were lined up,
and on the second floor, lumber was stacked in every available space.

At the time, there was no way I could have known the types of wood.

But in the air of the workshop,
the scent of freshly planed wood always drifted.

Thinking back now, I suspect there were many materials like cedar, cypress, and pine.
That is because they are woods frequently used for both structure and finishing.

However, what remains in my memory as a child is not the tree species, but
the space itself filled with the scent of wood.

In one corner of the workshop, bundles of glass wool insulation were placed.

We, being small, would sneak in there,
and play by jumping on them like a trampoline.

Afterward, our whole bodies would get itchy and it would be a disaster,
but even so, that place was a fun secret base for us.

Eventually, the workshop also gradually changed its appearance.

The building was downsized, and the second floor was renovated into an office and
a room where one could easily live.

The stairs leading to the second floor were steel stairs attached to the exterior.

A terrace was built between the house and the workshop,
and the two buildings were connected by those stairs and the terrace.

From there, one could also climb onto the tiled roof of the house.

On the other side of the house was the old house that had been left half-standing, as I wrote about in a previous article.
Near it was a persimmon tree, and when autumn came, I would pick persimmons and eat them while lying on the roof.

I have also climbed onto the tiled roof of the house.
However, the tiled roof is hard and a bit painful.

Compared to that, the galvanized iron roof of the half-house was a comfortable place for a child.

There was a handrail on the terrace connecting the house and the workshop,
and I often gazed at the scenery from there.

The surroundings were countryside filled only with fields and rice paddies, and the view was clear.
Whenever I lay down on the terrace, the wind would always blow through.

I could see mountain ranges in the distance,
and in the evening, the sun would set behind those mountains.

I liked to just watch that scene in silence.

Thinking back now, there were various materials in that place.

A workshop that smelled of wood.
A steel staircase.
A corrugated metal roof.
A tiled roof.
And the terrace where the wind blew through.

Looking back, my memories of architecture
begin with places like these.

Architecture is not something born only on blueprints.
Perhaps it is something that is gradually shaped within the memories of the body.

Materials receive time in different ways.
And that time is, before one knows it, etched into human memory.

Architecture might be
the act of weaving together the time of materials.

(Series Table of Contents)

Theory of Temporal Architecture

Chapter 0
When Does Architecture Become Memory?

Chapter 1
Can Aging Be Designed?

Chapter 2
How Do Materials Receive Time?

Chapter 3
Space of the Five Senses

Chapter 4
Why Is Architecture Demolished?

Chapter 5
The Time of Architecture

Chapter 6
Space That Creates Memory

Chapter 7
Architecture and Landscape

Chapter 8
Designing the Future

Chapter 9
Architecture is the Art of Time

Final Chapter
Architecture is a Device for Memory