Antonin Raymond

Biography Raymond was born on 10 May 1888, in Kladno, Central Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) to Alois Reimann, a Jew of German descent, and his wife Růžena, a Catholic. Following the death of his mother and the bankruptcy of his father's shop the family moved to Prague in 1905. Raymond started at the Reálné gymnasium (secondary school aimed at more technical/practical sciences) in Kladno, then continued at a similar school in Prague.

In 1906 Raymond entered Vysoká Škola Technická, the Prague Polytechnic, studying under Josef Schultz and Jan Koula. He completed his studies in Trieste in 1910 before leaving for New York City.

There, he began a three-year employment with Cass Gilbert, working on a number of projects including external architectural details for the Woolworth Building and the Austin, Nichols and Company Warehouse in Brooklyn. His experience on the latter of these gave him an insight into the structural and textural properties of concrete.

He began studying painting at the Independent School of Art in the Lincoln Square Arcade Building in 1912, but was forced to curtail a painting trip to Italy and North Africa with the onset of World War I. On his trip back to New York, he met his future wife and business partner, Noémi Pernessin, and they were wed on 15 December 1914. In early 1916 he became an American citizen, naturalizing his name, Antonín Reimann, to Antonin Raymond. Despite their contrasting personalities, which led colleagues to wonder if they would survive as a partnership, they were able to continue working together until Raymond's death.

Raymond received the commission for the Reader's Digest Building from Mrs DeWitt Wallace on his return from Japan in 1949. She wanted a design that would show the best that America could offer. The site acquired for the building was opposite the Hirakawa Gate of the Imperial Palace. Its choice was treated with great resentment by the Japanese who felt that favouritism was shown by the Occupation authorities in allowing an American company to utilise a prominent site that would have served better as a park. Taking influence from Le Corbusier, Raymond responded to this criticism by masterplanning the site by using a Ville Radieuse inspired layout with the building set in gardens with sculptures by the Japanese American sculptor, Isamu Noguchi.

The long, rectilinear, two-storey building, had a double cantilevered frame supported on a single row of concrete columns. These columns tilted outwards from a vertical position. Floor to ceiling glazing on the second storey opened out onto a balcony running the length of the building. It included technical innovations from America including acoustic ceiling tiles, underfloor electricity ducts and fluorescent lighting.

It is considered the first large building in which Raymond managed to use his principles of simplicity, economy of materials, elegance and lightness learned from his residential works. Raymond cited the design of the Hiroshima Peace Museum by Kenzo Tange as being an external imitation of the Reader's Digest Building.

Despite winning awards when first completed, the Reader's Digest Building was demolished in 1963 to be replaced by the nine-floor Palaceside Building, a mixed used office building designed by Shōji Hayashi that for many years has served as the headquarters of the Mainichi Newspaper.

Experimentation in Tokyo

Raymond purchased land in the Nishi Azabu district of Tokyo to build his new office and living quarters. The office was built using the traditional Japanese post and lintel type construction using unplaned timber logs. The office served as a proving ground for the latest American building innovations including veneered plywood and suspended metal ductwork for forced air heating. Taking influence from Le Corbusier's modulor, Raymond used the traditional Japanese module of the ken (based upon the size of tatami mats) as a unit of measure to set out the building's structure. Again he used fusuma partitions and shoji screens, but in a modern way to divide up the spaces.

Raymond sought to use the design and construction of the office as a platform to inform prototype dwellings for the post war reconstruction of Japan.

In 1955, Raymond began a commission in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture for a Music Centre to house the Gunma Symphony Orchestra. Out of respect for the historic site and the budget constraints, he designed a building built on three premises: it would have an economical structural system, there would be equality of sight lines and acoustics for each seat, and the building would have a low profile without a fly tower. Raymond achieved these aims by using a series of thick, reinforced concrete ribs connected together like an accordion and spanning .

In 1961, he was commissioned to design the Catholic-based Nanzan University in Nagoya. It was one of the largest projects that he would undertake. The campus was orientated on a north–south axis across rolling hills and the eight buildings were arranged to suit the topography and harmonise with the landscape. In-situ concrete is used throughout the scheme and each building has its own concrete form, some with pilotis, others with shells.

Located to the east of the Nanzan Campus is the Divine Word Seminary Chapel (1962). This is a building that exploits the plastic capacity of concrete, with two intersecting shells forming a bell tower. These are punctured with vertical slots which allow light to radiate along the curved interior walls.

Influence of his wife Noémi Raymond

Born in 1889 in Cannes to Swiss-French parents, Noémi moved to New York in 1900, and later studied Fine Art and Philosophy at Columbia Teachers College. Here, she was influenced by the painter and educator Arthur Wesley Dow. During Raymond's period of training as a painter, Noémi supported them both by doing graphic work for publications like the New York Sun and New York Herald Tribune. When they both moved to Taliesin she became interested in 3D design. She also polished her knowledge of Japanese crafts, becoming a broker for clients such as Rudolph Schindler's wife, Pauline Gibling.

Noémi's influence on Raymond during the inter-war years was substantial. She encouraged him to break away from Wright's rigid style and explore the design of the Reinanzaka House. She increased her interest in Japanese art and philosophy, including ukiyo-e woodblock prints and introduced Raymond to various influential people, including the mystic philosopher Rudolf Steiner.

She expanded her design repertoire to include textiles, rugs, furniture, glass and silverware. Noémi exhibited in Tokyo in 1936 and New York in 1940, and her textiles were chosen by American designers like Louis Kahn to cover furniture in their designs.

Noémi also contributed to the design of the studio in Nishiazabu and a series of Raymond's villas during the 1950s, including the Hayama Villa (1958).

A legacy in concrete

When Wright left, Raymond set up his own office, he advertised himself as a specialist in reinforced concrete. He was aware of its textural properties from Cass Gilbert, its structural ones from Wright, and its benefits in relation to earthquake proofing. His first major independent project in 1921 was to design Hoshi Pharmaceutical School, which was one of the first reinforced concrete buildings in Tokyo. Raymond used precast concrete to form decorative elements for the building, such as window mullions. In a partially successful experiment, he used wooden formwork to imprint a texture onto the concrete (but he chose to cover it up).

On the Reinanzaka House, the labourers were skilled in the use of wood, and helped Raymond engrain the texture of cedar onto the concrete. This was further explored on the Tetsuma Akaboshi and the Morinosuke Kawasaki houses, where the concrete walls of the luxurious interiors were imprinted with cypress textures. On the Karuizawa Studio, workmen polished the concrete with sand and straw to reveal the texture of the aggregate. Whilst at Nanzan University, the south facing facades were cast with checkerboard patterns, with applied metalwork casting abstract shadows on the surface.

Raymond's techniques endeared him to the Japanese architectural psyche, and in 1958, the editor of the architectural magazine Shinkenchiku, Yoshioka Yasugoro remarked, "it is doubtful that concrete is handled with such pains anywhere except in Japan. The idea of an exposed concrete surface seems to fit in with Japanese ideas of decor." Post war architects like Tadao Ando have become famous for their use of exposed concrete.

Raymond's use of a traditional post and beam structure in concrete for the Reinanzaka House was a technique that was adopted by post war Japanese architects such as Kenzo Tange.

Predating Le Corbusier's work in Chandigarh, the Golconde dormitory used a monolithic concrete structure with deep overhangs and louvres to adapt to specific climatic conditions. The building pioneered the use of reinforced concrete in India.

Antonin Raymond died at St. Mary's Hospital in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, on 25 October 1976, aged 88. His wife Noémi died four years later, aged 91. Raymond Architectural Design Office continues to practice in Tokyo.

Selected works

Tokyo Woman's Christian College, Tokyo (1921–1938) Reinanzaka House, Tokyo (1924) Hoshi University Main Building, Tokyo (1924) Ehrismann Residence, Yamate, Yokohama (1927) The American School in Japan, Meguro Campus, Tokyo (1927) Italian Embassy Villa, Nikko (1929) Troedsson Villa, Nikko (1931) Tokyo Golf Club, Asaka (1932) Summer House, Karuizawa (1933) Akeboshi Tetsuma House, Tokyo (1933) Morinosuke Kawasaki House, Tokyo (1934) Tokyo Woman's Christian College Chapel/Auditorium (1934) Raymond Farm, New Hope (1939) The Huyler Building, Buffalo, New York (interior) (1939–1940) St. Joseph the Worker Church, Victorias City, Negros, the Philippines (1949) Raymond House and Studio, Azabu (1951) Reader's Digest Offices, Tokyo (1951) Cunningham House, Tokyo (1954) St. Anselm's Church, Tokyo (1954) Yawata Steel Otani Gymnasium, KitaKyushu (1955), (GoogleEarth 33.862184,130.806841) Yaskawa Head Offices, KitaKyushu, (1954) St. Alban's Church, Tokyo (1956) Hayama Villa, Hayama (1958) Moji Golf Club, KitaKyushu (1959) St. Michael's Church, Sapporo (1960) New Studio, Karuizawa (1962) St. Paul Church, Shiki (1963) St. Paul's Chapel, Rikkyo Niiza Junior and Senior High School, Niiza Campus, Saitama (1963) Nanzan University Campus (1964) Chapel and Lecture Hall, Rikkyo Boys Primary School, Tokyo (1966)

Awards 1952 Architectural Institute of Japan Award for the Reader's Digest Building 1956 Medal of Honor by the New York Chapter of American Institute of Architects 1957 First Honor Award of the American Institute of Architects and the Yawata Steel Worker's Union Memorial Hall Award of Merit 1964 Third Class, Order of the Rising Sun by Emperor Hirohito 1965 Design Award from the Architectural Institute of Japan for his design of Nanzan University, Nagoya

Publications 1935 Antonin Raymond: His Work in Japan 1920–1935 published by Jônan Shoin, Tokyo 1938 Architectural Details published by the International Architectural Association, Tokyo 1962 The Works of Antonin Raymond Architectural Association Journal 1967 Watakushi to nihon kenchiku (Myself and Japanese Architecture) A collection of writings and lectures, published by Kajima Shuppansha, Tokyo 1970 Jiden (autobiography) published in Japanese by Kajima Shuppansha, Tokyo 1973 Antonin Raymond: An Autobiography published by Charles E. Tuttle Company of Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo, Japan