showroom - Tile of Spain
showroom - Tile of Spain showroom - Tile of Spain
THE FOUR SADDLES ARCH: GAUDIANARCHITECTURE IN THE HOME OF JAPAN’SCERAMIC ARTSIn a small sanctuary more than 10,000 kilometres from Spain, ceramic tilesand Gaudí are the object of veneration. Japan is a country of contrastsbetween ancient imperial culture and the most futuristic cutting edge. Thecity of Ebetsu on the northern island of Hokkaido is an exponent of the landof the rising sun’s age-old tradition of ceramic art. In this town, which isalso known as “the city of ceramic art”, architect Hiroya Tanaka has built the“Four Saddles Arch” or “Lily of the Valley Arch”, in honour of Hokkaidoprovince’s most emblematic flower.Constructed entirely of brick made in Ebetsu itself, clad with ceramic tiles bySpanish manufacturer Gres de Breda and held together with cement byWeber, this monument is a brilliant homage to Gaudí’s style. The sculpturestands in pride of place on a circular plaza just opposite Ebetsu’s CeramicArt Centre.The work also pays homage to proportion: it measure four metres high, fourmetres wide and four metres long. Tanaka explains that he wanted to applyan “organic geometry”, something quite unprecedented in this country, tothe monument. To do this the architect, who is Japanese by birth andCatalan by adoption, surrounded himself with a team of people who werevery familiar with the work of Antoni Gaudí, the genius of modernism. Theteam comprised Catalan master frame builder Jordi Doménech and hisJapanese assistant Taniguchi Tatsuhei.The finishing touch to the plaza, which opens onto the Ceramic Art Center,was commissioned by the Ebetsu City Council and Brickjam 2004. Tanaka,Doménech and Tatsuhei built the sculpture over 12 days, from 4 th to16 thOctober 2004, with the help of five volunteers. It was unveiled the followingday, coinciding with the 40 th anniversary of the founding of Ebetsu as a city.The work traces the shape of a hyperbolic paraboloid, one of the brilliantGaudí’s most central visual elements. For ultramodern Japanesearchitecture the shape and the complexity and novelty of using brick andceramic tiles to build it meant that it was something utterly new, unknownand avant-garde.Structurally, the sculpture consists of a brick core faced with ceramic tilesby Spanish manufacturer Gres de Breda. The lack of steel in the structure16CERASPAÑA
shows the versatility, flexibility and considerable potential of the materialsused. The arch itself is a clear example of how important ceramic tiles arein the field of construction and, given that at its thinnest point the arch isjust 65 millimetres thick, of their strength and malleability as well.All of these features must make the Four Saddles Arch of Lily of the ValleyArch one of Ebetsu’s most emblematic monuments. It is certainlyphotographed and remembered by all those who visit it. Tanaka himself hasdefined it as “original, innovative and extraordinary, with a geometricarchitectural symbolism.”The impact of this work, which is unique in Japan, has reached far beyondthe Asian country’s frontiers, making it a point of reference in both art andceramic architecture. In Spain, the Asociación Gaudí & Barcelona Club, ofwhich Hiroya Tanaka is also a member, promotes this unusual “saddle” asan example of Antoni Gaudí’s universality and the relevance of his worktoday.Hiroya Tanaka owes his adopted Catalan status to his devotion to theCatalan genius and to the studies of modernism’s most celebratedmastermind that he carried out in Spain. In 1992 he worked on a thesistitled “Graphic Methodology: Drawings and Proportion in the Work of Gaudí”,which he defended at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in 1992 andwhich earned him a doctorate.Tanaka is one of the world’s most knowledgeable people on Gaudianarchitecture. The Japanese expert is one of the leading researchers into thework of Gaudí and has participated in technical conferences for architects inSpain, giving papers such as “Measurements and Proportion in the work ofGaudí”, which he presented to an audience of students and professionals inBarcelona.He has also given talks and masterclasses on his visits to Catalonia, at theCasa de Asia (Asia House) in Barcelona, where in sessions such as the onetitled “Architecture, Gaudí and Me” the audience learned from the Japanesemaster himself about his link with Antoni Gaudí.Hiroya Tanaka considers that the beauty of the work of the famous Catalanmaster, who died in 1926, lies in the technique and proportions he used,which are “directly related to nature and its beauty”.Hiroya Tanaka’s CV is long and dazzling: he took his first degree at the University of Kokushikan, holds a Doctorate in Architecturefrom the Advanced School of Architecture in Barcelona, part of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, and has studied the work of AntonioGaudí extensively.His many merits include having founded the Gaudí Club and he is also known for being the designer of the Gaudí Objects Collection,in which he has kept the mathematical proportions set by the Catalan genius – and that elevated him to the very pinnacle of hisprofession – down to the last millimetre. He has even suggested Gaudí be canonized for having reflected his fervent religionsconvictions in his calculations. The objects that Hiroya Tanaka has designed include, amongst other things, liqueur bottles for suchprestigious brands as Torres (Gaudí Brandy), whose lines pay homage to the famous man and to the spirit of innovation of all thosewho, in whatever profession, passed the excitement of work well done down from father to son.The architect has also written several books including “Gaudí’s Architecture. A collection of drawings of construction in progress”, “Gaudíand restraint” and “Graphic Methodology, drawings and proportion in the work of Gaudí”, published by the university of Shokokusha andthe Polytechnic University of Catalonia.CERASPAÑA17
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THE FOUR SADDLES ARCH: GAUDIANARCHITECTURE IN THE HOME OF JAPAN’SCERAMIC ARTSIn a small sanctuary more than 10,000 kilometres from <strong>Spain</strong>, ceramic tilesand Gaudí are the object <strong>of</strong> veneration. Japan is a country <strong>of</strong> contrastsbetween ancient imperial culture and the most futuristic cutting edge. Thecity <strong>of</strong> Ebetsu on the northern island <strong>of</strong> Hokkaido is an exponent <strong>of</strong> the land<strong>of</strong> the rising sun’s age-old tradition <strong>of</strong> ceramic art. In this town, which isalso known as “the city <strong>of</strong> ceramic art”, architect Hiroya Tanaka has built the“Four Saddles Arch” or “Lily <strong>of</strong> the Valley Arch”, in honour <strong>of</strong> Hokkaidoprovince’s most emblematic flower.Constructed entirely <strong>of</strong> brick made in Ebetsu itself, clad with ceramic tiles bySpanish manufacturer Gres de Breda and held together with cement byWeber, this monument is a brilliant homage to Gaudí’s style. The sculpturestands in pride <strong>of</strong> place on a circular plaza just opposite Ebetsu’s CeramicArt Centre.The work also pays homage to proportion: it measure four metres high, fourmetres wide and four metres long. Tanaka explains that he wanted to applyan “organic geometry”, something quite unprecedented in this country, tothe monument. To do this the architect, who is Japanese by birth andCatalan by adoption, surrounded himself with a team <strong>of</strong> people who werevery familiar with the work <strong>of</strong> Antoni Gaudí, the genius <strong>of</strong> modernism. Theteam comprised Catalan master frame builder Jordi Doménech and hisJapanese assistant Taniguchi Tatsuhei.The finishing touch to the plaza, which opens onto the Ceramic Art Center,was commissioned by the Ebetsu City Council and Brickjam 2004. Tanaka,Doménech and Tatsuhei built the sculpture over 12 days, from 4 th to16 thOctober 2004, with the help <strong>of</strong> five volunteers. It was unveiled the followingday, coinciding with the 40 th anniversary <strong>of</strong> the founding <strong>of</strong> Ebetsu as a city.The work traces the shape <strong>of</strong> a hyperbolic paraboloid, one <strong>of</strong> the brilliantGaudí’s most central visual elements. For ultramodern Japanesearchitecture the shape and the complexity and novelty <strong>of</strong> using brick andceramic tiles to build it meant that it was something utterly new, unknownand avant-garde.Structurally, the sculpture consists <strong>of</strong> a brick core faced with ceramic tilesby Spanish manufacturer Gres de Breda. The lack <strong>of</strong> steel in the structure16CERASPAÑA
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