Literary Connections

At its root, the Toda House by Kimihiko Okada is a single plane coiled upon itself. So I created the book as a continuous plane running from cover to single long sheet to cover. As interesting as that was, the single four inches by nine feet, ten inches page was impractical as a book. In addition the mylar made a rather flimsy cover.

My solution to these issues was to add bristol paper to the cover and accordion fold the strip into fourteen pages.

I attached the sheets and the covers together using traditional japanese stab binding running around the edges of the covers and the seams of the sheets. I created my own pattern based on the parallelogram I visible in the plan of the Toda House. 

All that remained was to bind it, but the instant I sewed an edge together like a traditional book I’d lose half of the page surfaces.










 Following the Japanese tradition of efficiency and flexibility in a small space I bound the book so that it opened in two directions with a new book appearing on each side.

The finished book resulted in a clean but slightly rough look due to the exposed stitches. Every joint, every layer, every stitch, and every seam is visible. It is clear to the naked eye exactly how the book was put together because unlike common American architecture, Japanese design celebrates the connections and construction of materials.