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Japanese Timber Framing Members Repurposed as Street Furniture

…with an assist from an unwelcome material: Styrofoam

By Rain Noe - May 7

in Urbanism | Furniture Design

As someone who reveres timber framing, this is kind of painful to see. However, I suppose it's better that the pieces are seen and used as street furniture rather than discarded.

These are public benches outside a train station in Otsu, the capital of Japan's Shiga Prefecture. "In the vicinity of the project site, many old posts and beam materials were left behind from demolishing old houses, and the materials were waiting to be discarded," writes design/build firm Tank. "In this project, we wanted to give new value to these old materials and revitalize them into something that would be utilized in the community."

That's all fine and good. What irks me is the material used to fill in the gaps and join the pieces:

"To ensure the functionality of the furniture, a joining method was sought that would eliminate the steps. Styrofoam, developed as a heat insulator for construction, is a material that has been used in various situations, such as sculpture molds and architectural models, due to its ease of formability. The idea was to create a seamless continuity between old timbers by using Styrofoam as a joint."

"The joints were given surface and collective strength by wrapping [fiber-reinforced plastic] across the Styrofoam and the old wood. By joining the old timbers, materials of the required length and shape were created from the available materials."

"The unevenness of the old timbers, such as the marks of mortise holes and bolt holes, which would be an obstacle to use as furniture, were filled in with Styrofoam to eliminate the difference in level within a single piece of furniture."

"The final shape of the Styrofoam was determined from the cross-sectional shapes of the old lumber. Nevertheless, the curvature of the form varies depending on the builder, so the final figures can only be predicted once the work is completed. As fabrication progressed, the desire to combine materials with more unpredictable shapes (i.e., more complex deformations) increased, and as a result, many deformed materials were incorporated."

Better that than the burn pile, I suppose.

o

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Chuck Mack

7 months ago

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Gorgeous timbers, tragic result. I'm sure any real Japanese carpenters cringe at seeing this.
An insert of wood called a Dutchman is the way to fill a void in a wooden surface.
It's not only the plastic filler that's offensive but the bench design is boneheaded. What sort of idiot would lay timbers flat and in direct contact with pavement?? Mordifying use of material.

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Alan Nomoto

7 months ago

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Good to see repurposed materials giving texture to an otherwise bland metal/glass urban landscape. My city is hellbent to raze buildings with beautiful architectural details. Repurposing or adaptive reuse doesn’t fit the business model for developers I assume.

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Dee An

7 months ago

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>As someone who reveres timber framing, this is kind of painful to see.
Oh boy, you're in for a shocker when you read about the Japanese culture of making houses designed to last for only the original owners. It does create a lot of work for architects.

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- Alan Nomoto
  
  Dee An
  
  7 months ago
  
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  Very curious; can you cite a/the source?
  
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  - Dee An
    
    Alan Nomoto
    
    7 months ago
    
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    Here we go, from 2014:
    https://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-are-japanese-homes-disposable/
    
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