General Events

Join us for a hybrid event with Dr. Michelle L. Hauk (Washington University in St. Louis).
Register at the link above!

About the Speaker:
Dr. Michelle L. Hauk is an assistant professor in architectural history and theory at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. Trained in both architectural design and history, she specializes in the history of architecture, technology, and society in twentieth-century Japan. Her research examines the evolution of the dwelling in twentieth century Japan through the lens of water and the technologies that organize its flow. She considers the ways in which the design of water within domestic environments intersects with social relationships, cultural practices, and the natural environment.

About the Talk:
In 1960, Hamaguchi Miho and Hayashi Masako, two of Japan’s first women architects, published side-by-side articles in an issue of the NHK Ladies’ Classroom. The series, which ran from 1950 to 1964, normally covered themes such as “Lunchboxes and Sandwiches,” “Beauty After 30,” and “New Kimono” in its sleekly-designed, vertically-oriented volumes. This particular issue, however, tackled the more technical theme of home renovations, with a special focus on kitchens, baths, and toilets. Hamaguchi was to write in great detail about various solutions to kitchen planning and renovation, which Hayashi took on the bath. Toilets were address by Okuta Tomiko, a frequent contributor to the series. Together, these two writers form a bridge between the world of architecture and the housewife. 

Both prolific modernists with a substantial body of residential work and strong ties to the architectural establishment, their presence is this popular radio bulletin is unexpected. Hamaguchi, who had worked for Maekawa Kunio, a disciple of Le Corbusier, before opening her own practice in 1948, had published articles in prominent architecture journals such as Kenchiku bunka [Architecture culture] as well as her own treatise Nihon jūtaku no hōkensei [The feudalism of Japanese dwellings] in 1949 that took a critical stance towards norms in Japanese domestic architecture and called for modernization of the dwelling. Hayashi, meanwhile, was a disciple of Seike Kiyoshi and co-founder of Hayashi, Yamada, & Nakahara in 1958, whose designs were widely disseminated in journals including Kenchiku bunka and Shinjūtaku [New houses]. 

This talk examines their accessible approach to writing about kitchen and bath design in the NHK Ladies’ Classroom, considering what this venue meant as a means of connecting with audiences outside of the elite architectural networks in which both architects practiced. It places this type of article—technical advice about the design of the dwelling provided by a practicing architects to housewives—within the longer historical context of writing on domestic architecture in women’s magazines and considers what it meant for Japan’s first women architects to cultivate an audience in the professional housewife at a time when both appear to have been confined to the idea of the home in different ways.

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