Is stone wall a sustainable architectural choice? Ask traditional Japanese masons
The exhibition “How is Life?” at TOTO GALLERY·MA in Tokyo, Japan
The exhibition titled “How is Life?” is currently held at TOTO GALLERY·MA in Tokyo, Japan (through March 19, 2023. It’s free.) Co-curated by Yoshiharu Tsukamoto (Atelier Bow-Wow), Manabu Chiba, Seng Kuan, and Tsuyoshi Tane – the members of TOTO GALLERY·MA’s Planning and Management Committee, the exhibition explores what architecture can do to address some pressing issues our society faces today, including climate change, social inequalities, pandemics, and the shifts in global dynamics. The exhibition introduces a variety of projects from the past and present in differnet parts of the world. They all pursue sustainability, but at the same time, they also encourage participation by people in every aspect of designing, buidling and maintainging their communities.
石積み (ishizumi) – traditional Japanese stonewall technique
In a small courtyard, the exhibition showcases some fundamental design ideas “we” (literally any one of us) can implement. One of them is a stonewall.
Junko Sanada, the pioneer of reviving ishizumi in 21st century
The project is led by Junko Sanada, Associate Professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology. While she teaches landscape engineering, she’s been promoting traditional Japanese stone wall building techniques she learnt from local traditional masons.
According to Sanada, stone walls are sustainable because they don’t require cement nor mortar, and they can keep using local rocks pretty much indefinitely.
She is focused on a technique called 空石積み (kara ishizumi), which uses reasonable large rocks and pebbles as fillers.
空石積み (Kara ishizumi) is easy enough. Pretty much anyone can do it by following some basic rules such as 1) lay larger rocks at the bottom, and choose increasingly smaller sizes, 2) back side of the wall should be a bit lower than the front side, and 3) fill the voids with pebbles and/or sand.
However, the technique has been transferred through OJT. Today, the masons who know ishizumi techniques are decreasing, but people are learning it from them by experiencing it through workshops for example.
Here is a video of one of Sanada’s stonewall workshops. You can see the process of stonewall making. Looks like everyone is learning by doing.
This is the video by the Japan federation of landscape contractors. The work looks professional.
