Monday, June 02, 2008

Photos of a local Neighbourhood.



















Ive been working the last couple of weeks at a new school.About fifteen minutes from the main business area of Nagoya.Its serves as a dormitory suburb for the masses of black suited workers who daily invade and retreat from the city.
Its pretty indistinguishable from and typical of other sprawling housing areas.
The housing is a mix of older small detached houses and newly built multi-storied apartment buildings.Theres a mixture of old style lean to constructions and modern designed units sitting cheek by jowl.All random and unplannned.Huge towerblocks casting their five o'clock shadows on their frail,smaller neighbours.














The older house above still seems to be lived in.Im not sure that its habitable given the holes in the walls and the general state of disrepair.It appears to be built in a traditional manner.Wooden and hardened earth or clay.Many of the older houses have heavy ceramic tiles on their roofs.


















There are many narrow lanes and walkways through the area.I imagine given the lack of street lighting that it would be quite easy to get lost at night in the maze of paths.

















This is another shot showing the poor access and close proximity of houses to one another.It would be easy for a fire to spread quickly and even engulf buildings opposite.At the same time getting vehicles such as ambulances and fire engines to such areas would be difficult.


















The final photo shows a building again seemingly still occupied but in a state of considerable decay.The exterior surface of white plaster has gone exposing the hardened earth or clay layer beneath.As a result this layer has been weathered and damaged.There is no glass in the window cavity.Instead a wooden shutter provides some barrier to the elements.
The house has been built of materials that you can see in many similar older constructions namely corrugated iron,timber,clay and plaster.
The roof again has traditional heavy ceramic tiles.In the case of this building the tiles have been wired together possibly to prevent them falling off in the event of an earthquake or typhoon.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It is an interesting contrast, the fetish for safety and security and then that is contrasted with things like this.

Same with the no seatbelt in the back seat. All seams a bit strange.

I liked the photos too