022.名古屋 05.帝冠様式
022.Nagoya 05.Imperial Crown Style (Japan)

2023年7月15日

モダニズム華やかなりし頃、徹底的な批判を浴びた帝冠様式の建築。西欧の歴史的な建築様式に、和風の屋根を架けた建築で、その代表作が隣接して立つのが名古屋の丸の内地区。

The imperial crown style architecture was thoroughly criticized at a time when modernism was flourishing. It was the style that combined a Western European classical architecture with a Japanese traditional roof. The representative buildings remained in Marunouchi district, Nagoya.

大通りに面して、左側が名古屋市役所本庁舎、右側が愛知県庁本庁舎。
See Nagoya City Hall Main Building on the left hand and Aichi Prefectural Office Main Building on the right hand facing the boulevard.

帝冠様式の代表作である1930年完成の名古屋市庁舎と、1931年完成の愛知県庁舎。名古屋市庁舎のコンペでは、前川國男が、モダニズムばりばりの箱型建築の提案をしましたが落選。選ばれた平林金吾の案は、褐色とベージュを組み合わせた外壁に、名古屋城の緑青の屋根を模した青緑色の瓦、そして、金のシャチホコをモチーフにした四方にらみのシャチの棟瓦を載せた時計塔。

完成から90年経った今、この場所に立つと、再建した名古屋城、愛知県庁舎、名古屋市庁舎がつながって、大きなランドマークとなっています。前川國男のモダニズム建築が立っていたら、戦前の街並みでは、新しさと巨大さで、名古屋城を圧倒する強いランドマークになり、現代では、名古屋城と愛知県庁舎のつながりを大きく分断し、名古屋城復元の動機も弱めたのではないでしょうか。新しい時代のために、新しい建築をつくるのが最善という、ノー天気なモダニズム信仰がふさわしい場所もありますが、名古屋で、もっとも文化的風土が強いこの場所に関しては、長く酷評されていましたが、帝冠様式が正解に思えました。

アメリカ軍による空襲で焼け落ちた名古屋城に対して、名古屋市庁舎と愛知県庁舎は、戦災も、そして、戦災以上に過酷だった、古い建物が取り壊された戦後の波も生き抜き、批判を浴びせたモダニストたちによる近代建築が更新されて行く中、平成26年（2014）に両者とも重要文化財の指定を受けました。空襲を免れるために、戦時中、コールタールで黒く塗りつぶした効果もあったのでしょうが、鉄筋コンクリートではなく、より強固で工費の掛かる鉄骨鉄筋コンクリート造でつくり、外観や室内を最上の材料で仕上げたこと、すなわち、贅を尽くしたことが、長く生き残った理由に見えます。

高い建設費も長い年月で割れば、贅沢ではなくリーズナブル、すなわち、究極の節約。それが名古屋流。

These were the Nagoya City Hall, completed in 1930, and the Aichi Prefectural Government Building, completed in 1931. In the Nagoya City Hall competition, Kunio Maekawa, who had been a pupil of Le Corbusier, proposed a modernist box-shaped architecture, but the juries rejected it. They selected Kingo Hirabayashi's plan with a combination of brown and beige exterior walls, a clock tower with a blue-green tile roof imitating the patina roof of Nagoya Castle, and ridge tiles like a gold Shachihoko (dolphin-like fish) that was the same as Nagoya Castle.

When I stood on this spot 90 years after its completion, the reconstructed Nagoya Castle, the Aichi Prefectural Government Building, and the Nagoya City Hall created harmony, functioning as the major landmarks. If Maekawa's modernist architecture had realized, it would have become an intense landmark that overwhelmed Nagoya Castle with its newness and gigantic scale in the prewar townscape, which was lined with many old-style buildings. Meanwhile, at the present time, it may have divided the area and weakened the motivation for the reconstruction of Nagoya Castle. Some places were suitable for the modernist belief, in which architects thought as best to create a new architecture for a new era. However, in this place, which had the most notbale cultural climate in Nagoya, it seemed that the crown style was the correct answer even if it had received criticized for long time.

The Nagoya City Hall and the Aichi Prefectural Government Building survived the war damage, and the post-war period, when its change was even worse than the war damage and old buildings had been demolished. Now, both were designated as a national important cultural property while the modernist architectures disappeared.

The reason why both survived must have been because the structure was steel-framed reinforced concrete, which was stronger and more expensive to build than reinforced concrete, and their exterior and interior were finished with the best materials. They didn't spare the expense, in addition to the effect that those were painted black with coal tar to avoid US air raids during wartime.

If the high construction cost is divided by the long period, it becomes reasonable rather than luxurious, that is, the ultimate savings. That is the Nagoya style.

名古屋市役所本庁舎 / Nagoya City Hall Main Building