The Aesthetic Landscape Theory, Yoshinobu Ashihara

Inside and Outside

In many parts of the world interior and exterior space seems to have a certain homogeneity. Attitudes and dress differ little depending on whether one is “inside” or “outside”.

Views from Within and Views from Without

Masonry construction in the West and post-and-beam construction in Japan’s traditional architecture are also distinguished by completely different approaches to viewing the landscape. For example: Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque architecture provides an impressive and outside at some distance.

By contrast, in Japan the landscape surrounding a house is very often designed specifically to be viewed from inside.

Buildings and Streets

In the history of cities the awareness of and affection for streets is strongest in the latin countries of western Europe and conspicuously weak in Japan.If a city’s streets look interesting, the city looks interesting; if they look dull, the city looks dull.

from the book of “ Aesthetic Townscape“ (MIT Press, 1984). Also read article about Visual Landscape Theory