This is the story of an American engineering hero in Tokyo, tea rooms,  earthquakes, architectural design excellence and far away cultures. Learn more at the Ideal Heating site. Created Sep 12 2007 by Walus, Mirek

...Someone once asked the legendary Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) An American Champion of "organic architecture" if he believed in God. He replied: "Yes. And I spell it 'NATURE'. " -  That helps form the basis of Wright's ideas of how nature is part of everything, including architecture  

Frank Lloyd Wright had long been intrigued by Japanese culture (he was an avid collector of Japanese prints), so when the opportunity came to build a State-Of-The-Art hotel in Tokyo, (The  TÔKYÔ IMPERIAL HOTEL), he lobbied for the project. Commissioned in 1916, the hotel was to represent the emergence of Japan as a modern nation and symbolize Japan’s relation to the West. It was supposed to be a symbol. With that in mind, Wright designed the building as a hybrid of Japanese and Western architecture. Japan at the time was an ultra conservative society just opening to the world after several hundred years of insulation (Edo closed its frontiers in XVI Century) and there was a notable opposition to let the Westerner directing the project with 'Imperial' in its name and Imperial in its design scale.

During the early project stages, Wright was invited to the home of a Japanese nobleman. There he found a fascinating tea room that was different from typical Japanese rooms.

The floor was covered with yellow paper and it was warm. It was a Korean Ondol room!

The Japanese gentleman had discovered Ondol in Korea and could not forget it. After returning from Japan he had an Ondol room built in his home. "The indescribable comfort of being warmed from below" impressed Wright. He decided then and there that Ondol was the ideal heating system and began incorporating it in his buildings.

Wright in fact invented the modern radiant floor heating, using hot water running through pipes instead of hot air through flues. From the true hybrid of Japanese and Western architecture came a true hybrid of the heating system.

The Imperial Hotel complex (帝国ホテル Teikoku Hoteru)

Wright's Art Deco design: Imperial Hotel plates, bowls and tea cup

Back in Japan Wright had developed a heroic reputation due to the fact that on Sept. 1, 1923 his Imperial Hotel on the very day of its grand opening  had survived a  massive Tokyo earthquake. The Great Kanto Earthquake of Taisho Era, 12th year razed vast sections of Yokohama and Tokyo, killed tens of thousands of people, but left the new Imperial intact with minimal damage. The Imperial became the social center of Tokyo for the international community. This was an architectural gamestone with most extravagant features of Mayan and Art Deco design, executed in highly porous green volcanic rock, pierced terra cotta grillwork and yellow brick. Narrow, low-ceilinged, sinister-looking passageways led into airy lobbies and ballrooms whose ceilings were hand-painted in peacock designs and shimmering with gold leaf. Heads of state, royalty, industrial tycoons and movie stars came and went away amazed.

         Destruction of government printing office and Tokyo Station

                                                                   September 8, 1923
Dear Mr. Wright,

The first shock was enough to lay many buildings flat, and ... the second shock easily leveled what the first had loosened...Fire billowed from every house and those people who survived the crush and sought places of safety out in the open were killed by the smoke and scorching hot air, roasted by hundreds and thousands.
All steel buildings proved fatal, enough to show that our architects were fools.
What a glory it is to see the Imperial standing amidst the ashes of a whole city! Glory to you! 
                                                                   Sincerely, 
                                                         Arata Endo (Sab Shimono)

The TÔKYÔ IMPERIAL HOTEL  -  Tôkyô / Inuyama* 1923 was demolished in 1968. The entrance lobby was saved and reconstructed at the Meiji Mura architecture museum in Nagoya.