Today I saw the most beautiful wall. At the invitation of the architect, I had a chance to tour the new French Embassy before it is handed over to the client later this week. The wall I am about to describe encloses the main embassy building. Regrettably I changed bags, flew out of the house (I was a little behind schedule), and inadvertently forgot to take my camera. So no photo. So sorry.
Maximizing the site's wooded interior, the building stands near the edge of the property line. Because of proximate neighbors, the architects all but enclosed the south side of the building (there are some windows but they are few and far between). I know this sounds counterintuitive, especially in Japan where the southern exposure is highly valued. The rationale is that shutting out the sun will yield lower cooling loads and cut costs for the embassy as well as preserve privacy for everybody.
Created by a subcontractor out in Kofu, the wall itself is made of concrete panels dotted with stone aggregate: small brown pebbles, medium white limestone chips and large green chunks of granite. Before pouring the concrete, the manufacturer scattered the stones evenly on the bottom of a shallow metal mold. Then they slowly poured concrete on top, ever mindful of the distributed stones below. After curing, the contractor popped out the hardened panels and polished their molded undersides. As I listened to the architect's cogent explanation, I kept imagining baking metaphors. Though a whole lot more labor intensive than mixing up a batch of cookies, this process yields a very beautiful product.
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