2023/11/16: Huntington Library to present lecture “Symbiotic Beauty: The Sustainable Wisdom of Samurai Residences” Nov. 16, 4-5:30PM

The Huntington Library Lecture

Symbiotic Beauty: The Sustainable Wisdom of Samurai Residences

Learn how samurai houses in the Edo-period offered a symbiotic linkage of house and garden.

Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, 4 p.m.–5:30 p.m.
Education and Visitors Center, Rothenberg Hall & Livestream

Free with Registration

Azby Brown, a leading authority on Japanese architecture, design, and environmentalism, explains how the samurai house of the
Edo-period was a marvelous design solution that embodied the aesthetics of comfortable restraint and the ethics of wasteless use of materials and energy.

Conceived from the start as a symbiotic linkage of house and garden, samurai residences provide us with many ideal models for circular design highly applicable to our own age.

This talk will look at The Huntington’s Japanese Heritage Shōya House and place it in context with the values and practices of the era in which it was built and highlight the many continuities it displays across centuries and social hierarchies.

A book signing will follow the lecture. Just Enough: Lessons from Japan for Sustainable Living, Architecture, and Design by Azby Brown
How the mindset of traditional Japanese society can guide our own efforts to lead a green lifestyle today.  This book is available to purchase at The Huntington Store.