The Laboratory of Regional Design with Ecology, Hosei University is holding this year's annual International Symposium on 7 June 2005:
" The Aegean Sea and the Japan Sea: A Comparison of Vernacular Villages Located along the Sea"

Date：07 June, 2005 (Wednesday) 13:00 - 17:00
Place：Sky Hall, 26th Floor, Boissonade Tower, Ichigaya Campus, Hosei University, Tokyo

"The Aegean Crucible: A Geopolitical Perspective of Fortified Towns in the Aegean Archipelago"
Constantine Michaelides
Dean Emeritus of Washington University in St. Louis
The Mediterranean is the closed ocean. The Aegean architectural style has been greatly influenced by the natural feature and geographical characteristic like a crucible. An Aegean building has not clearly been classified as formal or vernacular. However all through the ages, a formal structure is ordered, owned and used by person in the position of power, including a king, president or government. On the contrary, a vernacular structure is owned by its inhabitant. These two kinds of structures are not opposed, but mixed, complemented, and coexisted.
In the Mediterranean, Islam and Christianity were opposed to each other; in addition, the ocean was infested with pirates. The pirates descended on commercial ships, and used captured sailors as galley slaves. Because the piracies were frequently occurred, Aegean buildings had protective features and fortresses composed of structures were constructed on top of the island. The acropolis including a sort of Parthenon style structure functioned as a fortress, around which vernacular residences were spread, and both composed a settlement as a whole. The land feature effectively provided protective measures against piracies. The coexistence of the styled architecture and vernacular buildings has continued.
In the neoclassical era of the West, Greek classic architecture was "found out" and realistically drawn in pictures, along with vernacular settlements. The movement inspired Greece after 1820, as well as the formation period of the modern nation in the 1830's. In 1836, the assembly hall of Athens, the early building in this modern state, was constructed in neoclassical (:formal) style influenced by the Western Enlightenment. However, vernacular buildings have always coexisted with formal ones, instead of being replaced by them. The settlement of immigrants who engaged in the construction of modern buildings in Athens, presented vernacular residential spaces; the place has been preserved until now, as an example of the construction process of modern Greece. Furthermore, we can see vernacular residences influenced by the formal architecture, with entrance composed of two pillars and pediment, or with the pediment decorated with a relief of human figure. As we have seen, an architectural style is formed by the interaction of a formal building and a vernacular one; the observation of such mixed style will give us the understanding of the lifestyle and culture of each region.

"Life Space of Ineura: A Fishing Village Facing the Sea of Japan"
Susumu Hyuga
Professor at Kyoto Institute of Technology
Ine-ura (fleet) is the first fishing village classified as "Important Preservation Districts for Groups of Historic Buildings" in 2005. Ine is located in the north of Kyoto, and in the middle of Tango-hanto (peninsula). Ao-shima (island) is in the mouth of the bay as if it was a cover to the bay. Therefore, waves are relatively calm and the tidal variation is approximately 50cm throughout the year. One of the characteristic landscapes of Ine is the waterfront with lined funaya (boat houses). The urban landscape of Ine is composed of funaya with gabled "tsuma-iri" style along the waterfront, gabled "hira-iri" style main houses on the other side of a narrow road and religious facilities along the lower slope of the mountain. The narrow spaces between houses have been used as shared net-drying places.
However, the town space has been gradually changed. Originally, the boat house was moved toward the waterfront, allowing the private road between the funaya and main house to be expanded. Therefore, the funaya is often on the filled land. However, it is possible that the landscape will be greatly transformed by the bank protection works against the recent land subsidence. Moreover, a funaya itself has been changing. A funaya has originally been a warehouse for protecting a wooden boat against seawater or marine borer. However, along with the grow in size of a ship, as well as the change of material (wood to FRP), the funaya could not serve as a shed. According to the change of family, the funaya has transformed into a living space from a working place. However, the opening at the ground floor is the remnant from the old landscape. Although there were 17 funaya in 1969, with opened ground floors facing the ocean, only 7 with such style could be found in 2003. Instead, the funaya without contact to water appeared around this year. The next level was commonly used as a working space without opening, though at present, the funaya often has a wide opening or a balcony. This change can be regarded as the transformation of a funaya to a residence, or a working space to a living space. Some funaya use their ground floors for car sheds instead of boats. In fact, there are 220 boats versus 400 vehicles in Ine; there have been an issue of parking spaces, specific to the land feature with narrow slopes with this highly densed colony. In addition, there is another concern to rehabilitation of funaya from tuma-iri to hira-iri style, resulting to destroy the landscape with continuous view of funaya.
As we have seen, although Ine has been designated as Important Preservation Districts for Groups of Historic Buildings, it is extremely important to respect the original landscape of the town by understanding the makeup of the settlement, and to recognize the town space to be preserved.