YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → Inside George Nakashima’s Japanese-Style Home & Workshop | Unique Spaces | Architectural Digest

Inside George Nakashima’s Japanese-Style Home & Workshop | Unique Spaces | Architectural Digest — Transcript

by Architectural Digest · 3,418 words · 556 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:07[music]
0:15>> I'm Mira Nakashima, daughter of George
0:17Nakashima, [music]
0:18and we are at the Nakashima Studios.
0:21We're going to take you on a trip around
0:23the property in New [music] Hope,
0:24Pennsylvania.
0:27My father, George, was the first of four
0:30children. He was born [music] 1905 in
0:33Spokane, Washington.
0:35He loved Boy [music] Scouts and
0:37developed a very strong love of trees at
0:39that point. So, he decided to major in
0:42forestry at University of Washington and
0:44then realized that his employment
0:46opportunities were somewhat limited in
0:48that profession [music]
0:49and switched to architecture. And then
0:51he got a scholarship to MIT and
0:53graduated in 1930 [music]
0:55at the height of the depression.
0:57So, he had trouble getting a job.
0:59[music]
1:00And at one point he decided the best
1:02thing to do would be to sell his car and
1:05buy a steamship [music] ticket around
1:06the world with that money.
1:08He bummed around Paris for a while.
1:11There were
1:12two buildings which really fascinated
1:14him. One was the Chartres Cathedral.
1:16Every [music]
1:17inch of that cathedral, it was built by
1:20people of all different walks of life
1:22who just worked [music] together to
1:24build this cathedral.
1:26Another building was a Corbusier
1:27building. The Pavillon Suisse was under
1:29construction when he was in Paris and
1:31[music] he was fascinated with
1:33reinforced concrete architecture.
1:42>> [music]
1:44>> This is the conoid studio. Conoid
1:47basically means it's generated from
1:48[music] a section of a cone.
1:50My dad was really into thin warped shell
1:53roofs and this is the most experimental
1:56warped shell on the property. It's made
1:59of reinforced concrete [music]
2:00and it's a 40 by 40 ft span. It's round
2:03at that end and it's basically flat at
2:05the other end but the engineers added
2:07the sign curves so he could keep it 2
2:09and 1/2 in thick.
2:11When he started working on it, he was so
2:14inspired by the [music] space, he set up
2:16his studio here.
2:18So, this space spawned a line of
2:20furniture.
2:21You have the conoid chair which has
2:22become kind of synonymous with our
2:24brand. It is a two-legged cantilevered
2:26chair and when it came out, we received
2:27a number [music] of letters saying,
2:29"Hey, you can't sell a two-legged wooden
2:31chair. You're going to get sued up and
2:32down the street. A two-legged chair is
2:33going to break all the time." It doesn't
2:35break. [music] It's one of our strongest
2:36chairs. I love it dearly.
2:38We also have the conoid dining table.
2:39This one's made with English walnut. We
2:41have the conoid coffee table.
2:42>> [music]
2:42>> We have the conoid room divider which is
2:44right here. This one's made with Persian
2:45walnut. Really lovely. Conoid end table
2:47here. Lots of conoid named pieces.
2:49Nothing's cone-shaped though.
2:52>> [laughter]
2:53>> The little chair in the front right
2:55there with three legs was the first
2:58original Mira chair. It was designed for
3:01me when I was about 10. That's [music]
3:03in the early 1950s.
3:09He said he had this feeling [music] of
3:10death in the Paris society and he
3:14decided it was time to get back on that
3:17boat and ended up ended [music] up in
3:18Japan. It was 1934. So, he got a job
3:22with the office of Raymond Antonin in
3:24Tokyo. He brought [music] modern
3:26architecture to Japan and there were
3:29many people in his office who became
3:31wonderful modernist arc- [music]
3:33architects in Japan.
3:35And uh dad was exposed to them.
3:38They hadn't done [music] any reinforced
3:39concrete of any kind in the continent of
3:42India at the time. So, dad volunteered
3:44to go and be architect on [music] site.
3:46He went there in 1936. He had to train
3:49people to do reinforced concrete. So,
3:51[music] he became very involved in the
3:53society and the philosophy and [music]
3:56took on the name of Sundarananda. They
3:59thought he was going to stay there for
4:00the rest of his life but World War II
4:03[music] was starting.
4:05Dad had second thoughts. He said, "Well,
4:07if my family is all back in the USA, I
4:09better go back to the USA." [music]
4:11On the way he met my mother. They fell
4:13in love, became engaged and were married
4:15in Los Angeles in [music] 1941.
4:18And then they moved up to Seattle,
4:21Washington. [music]
4:22On the way, dad did a survey trip of
4:25architecture in the USA [music]
4:26and he decided didn't want to be an
4:28architect anymore if that's the way they
4:30were doing architecture in the USA.
4:33So, he turned to furniture.
4:34A year after my parents were [music]
4:36married, I was born and then 6 weeks
4:38after that, we were all incarcerated on
4:41the Idaho desert.
4:42>> [music]
4:44>> That was my first home which I don't
4:46remember, luckily.
4:48Our family decided if we were going to
4:50be incarcerated, we would all be
4:52together. So, [music] my grandparents
4:53and my aunts and uncles and we were all
4:56together in the same camp.
4:58One good [music] thing that he did learn
5:00when we were in camp, the Japanese
5:02carpenter he worked with basically
5:04instructed him in how to improvise with
5:06found objects because that's [music] all
5:08we had. We had leftover packing
5:10materials, there were leftover building
5:11materials, there was bitterbrush that
5:13grew on the desert. [music]
5:15He also learned how to use Japanese hand
5:17tools and certain kinds of joinery that
5:19he wasn't that familiar with. He was so
5:21grateful to [music] this man named
5:23Gentaro Hikogawa because he was a master
5:26carpenter.
5:27There's no furniture except the army
5:29cots. So, [music] dad and Gentaro
5:31learned how to improvise and make
5:33furniture for our camp space.
5:36My mother was [music] not so happy with
5:37the situation but dad, he knew how to
5:39make the best of whatever was given you.
5:42Dad's professor from MIT [music]
5:45contacted Antonin Noemi Raymond who had
5:48left Japan [music]
5:49and came back to Pennsylvania to the
5:52East Coast and had bought an old farm in
5:54Bucks County and as professor [music]
5:57contacted them and said, "Can you please
5:59sponsor the Nakashimas so they can leave
6:01camp?" And they did and so [music] they
6:03insisted they really needed a chicken
6:05farmer. So, my dad came and he was a
6:08chicken farmer in Pennsylvania. [music]
6:10After a while he said chickens and he
6:12were not psychologically compatible.
6:15There were some letters that we
6:17discovered in
6:17>> [music]
6:17>> the family house that my mother had
6:20written and she described the time when
6:22we were at the Raymond farm [music] just
6:24down the hill here. There's a stream
6:26that runs by the farm and she said we
6:28were playing in the fresh water and we
6:30were free. She [music] was just so
6:32grateful to be free and out of that
6:34camp.
6:35Even though we were chicken farmers,
6:38we were at least [music] free.
6:40When we were released from camp early
6:42during that period of time because of of
6:45Mr.
6:46>> [music]
6:46>> Raymond's connections with the
6:48architecture and art world, dad met
6:51Isamu Noguchi and Harry Bertoia. Harry
6:54was a sculptor and he also designed
6:56chairs for Knoll. So, when dad built
6:58this building, Harry was very kind and
7:00gifted dad a sculpture. So, one of the
7:02sculptures [music] is hanging on the
7:04wall over there. The other one's outside
7:06on the patio.
7:07We've also [music] used Akari lamps
7:10which were designed by Isamu Noguchi. He
7:12was basically [music] doing the same
7:14kind of thing as my father and he did
7:17his part to try to preserve the old
7:19Japanese [music] craft traditions after
7:21World War II.
7:23I think this is one of the biggest ones
7:24that Noguchi designed but dad always had
7:27one hanging here.
7:29And this is our design studio. This is
7:31where we work. [music] That's my desk
7:32right there. This is my desk and my
7:34chair. It used to be dad's. We use
7:36old-fashioned drafting tools. [music]
7:38Yeah. Of course we have modernized and
7:40use computers. But we still do our
7:42drawing by hand. I really feel it's
7:43important to be able to use real [music]
7:46paper and pencils to draw because it
7:49sort of translates into the hand work in
7:51the shop. [music]
7:58When dad started [music] out, I think
8:00everybody was geared towards mass
8:02production but he was of the mind where
8:06he thought we should preserve hand work
8:08and making things by hand [music] and
8:10just the whole experience of people's
8:13hands on natural materials and using
8:15[music] not just machines which we use
8:18partly but hand tools as well. He
8:21insisted that that was an important part
8:24of design.
8:25>> [music]
8:31>> They're going to make this for the Wayne
8:32Art Center. Yeah.
8:35Should be nice. It's a nice board.
8:37This is my husband, John. He's working
8:39on a chair uh as usual. He was working
8:42before we met. We were both married to
8:45other people at the time.
8:47Things happened.
8:49We commiserated and became friends.
8:51>> [laughter]
8:52>> Originally, this was a lunch room but no
8:54one was eating lunch here so it became
8:56the chair shop. It's somewhat passive
8:59solar so we're facing south.
9:01So, the light as the days shorten
9:04comes farther and farther into the
9:06building and warms it up.
9:08This was the prototype for the conoid
9:10studio so it must have been done first.
9:12>> Yeah. In '58 and the other was finished
9:14in '59 or so. You'll notice the shape of
9:16the roof is the same. It just doesn't
9:18have that sine wave curve throughout.
9:19And it's smaller and it's made of
9:21plywood instead of concrete.
9:23The three of us that work here so it's a
9:25little tight but we get along. We have
9:27to move through the room to do our
9:30various tasks. There was a sculptor in
9:32Japan
9:34named Noguchi
9:36and he said that you couldn't have evil
9:38thoughts in a Nakashima chair. It puts
9:41you in a certain state.
9:42So, in a in a sense for George, a a
9:44chair is like a throne.
9:46You should
9:48sense something in yourself
9:50and the chair is helping you to to make
9:52that connection.
9:55>> [music]
10:03>> This building was the only non-George
10:05building on the property. [music]
10:07It was built in 1990 after my father
10:10passed away because he had this huge
10:12pile of lumber stored down in
10:14Philadelphia. And as soon as he died,
10:18they said, "We need the space. Move it.
10:20Get it [music] out of here." So, my
10:22daughter, Maria, who's also an architect
10:25drafted [music]
10:26what we needed as far as space.
10:28We built the first half of this pole
10:30barn in 1990 [music]
10:31and the second half in '95 cuz we ran
10:34out of space. So, this is where we store
10:36our lumber. The majority of the
10:37furniture that we make is made with
10:39American black walnut or cherry.
10:41>> [music]
10:41>> But, there are a great many species in
10:43here, about 50. Some of the more notable
10:45ones are things like Persian [music]
10:46walnut and English walnut. We actually
10:48have some Persian walnut logs right
10:50here. They're the ones marked with red
10:51paint on the side. Those come from Iran.
10:53>> [music]
10:54>> We also have some of our East Indian
10:55rosewood blocks right there, which we
10:57use for our butterflies.
10:59So, during George's time, he was able to
11:01purchase whole logs from other
11:03countries. And nowadays, that's not
11:04[music] possible because you can't
11:07import a log from another country
11:08because it has to be [music] properly
11:09processed in its country of origin as to
11:11not bring in invasive species. So,
11:14nowadays, it's nearly impossible to get
11:15these species like our Persian walnut,
11:17like our English walnut. They won't let
11:19them in. Yeah.
11:20Get a good smuggler.
11:21>> [laughter]
11:22>> Yeah. Smuggle a log.
11:25Well, it'll just fit in my suitcase.
11:27>> [laughter]
11:43>> When we moved to this property, Dad
11:45[music] didn't have enough money in the
11:46bank to buy the property itself, but he
11:49fell in love with a south-facing slope.
11:52And he found out the man who owned it
11:54was a fellow MIT graduate. And then he
11:57said, [music] "Could I please have 3
11:59acres of land to build on in exchange
12:01[music] for labor on your farm?" He
12:04said, "Okay." Back in the 1940s, you
12:06could do things like that. [music]
12:08He let my father build the workshop
12:10first and he literally built it with his
12:11own two hands. [music]
12:12And then he started building our house,
12:14which he also built with his own two
12:15hands.
12:22This is the old family [music] house. It
12:24was actually the first house that was
12:26ours.
12:27>> [laughter]
12:27>> When we first moved to the property, we
12:29lived in an old army tent in the in the
12:31back
12:32of this building. And well, Dad built
12:34this and he concentrated on finishing
12:37the shop first [music] so he could earn
12:39a living. And then he's probably working
12:41on projects in this shop, too, and
12:43finishing this house in his spare time,
12:45which he didn't have much of.
12:47>> [laughter]
12:47>> This is where I grew up where I used to
12:49roller skate in here.
12:53This used to be my room here and I was
12:56allowed to paint murals on the walls
12:58here. They're like fusuma doors in
13:00Japan. It covers the closet. This was
13:03the early one with skunks and animals.
13:05And this is the later one with the
13:07Thunderbird there on the right-hand
13:09side. When was the first Thunderbird
13:11made?
13:12I have no idea.
13:13>> [laughter]
13:14>> I know nothing about cars.
13:16This is the room that Dad built for me
13:18when my brother was born in 1954
13:22and I moved in and lived here until I
13:25left for college in 1963.
13:28And it's nice remembering when I was
13:30here.
13:30>> [laughter]
13:31>> This is my parents' bedroom. Um my
13:34parents always lived here. The pictures
13:36on the wall are pretty much the way they
13:38were when my parents lived here. These
13:40are both Ben Shahn peace doves. The tea
13:43cart there was designed by my father for
13:45my mother. She had trouble walking. It's
13:47on casters so she could carry stuff
13:49around. I think these were wedding
13:51presents from my father and mother from
13:54somebody a long time ago and she kept
13:57pictures of
13:59friends and relations in her room.
14:04>> [music]
14:07>> I remember the trees were much smaller
14:09[music] and Dad used to call it
14:11Mirrorland when I was little.
14:13It was magical.
14:15Dad did not teach me anything directly
14:17and I [music] learned what I learned
14:20from the workmen directly. When I came
14:23[music] in in 1970, Dad was giving them
14:25these little half-page sketches of
14:27freehand drawings and a few rough
14:30dimensions [music]
14:31and that was their plan for making their
14:33furniture.
14:37>> [music]
14:41>> This is the [music] arts building. It
14:43was one of my father's experimentations
14:46in thin-shell construction. It's a
14:48hyperbolic paraboloid shell roof and it
14:50was built [music] in 1967
14:52as a gallery for Ben Shahn. And Ben
14:55Shahn came by after it was under
14:57construction and said, "Oh, George, you
14:58really need a mosaic on the wall." So,
15:00>> [music]
15:00>> we have a Ben Shahn mosaic on the
15:02outside of this building.
15:04All the furniture in this space is from
15:06George's era. In particular, this piece
15:09right here is my favorite on the
15:10property. This is one of our Arland
15:12tables. This one's made with redwood,
15:14which comes from California. All of the
15:15redwood we have
15:17came from a forest fire. So, you can see
15:19this one has really lovely charring on
15:20the outside and it's taken this really
15:22interesting shape cuz it's a root burl.
15:25So, it comes from underneath the earth.
15:27Really beautiful piece.
15:29It's funny when people just try to put
15:30down their drink and it falls straight
15:31through.
15:32>> [laughter]
15:34>> Everybody who comes here and tries to
15:35walk up those stairs is a little bit
15:37afraid of walking down them because it
15:39doesn't look like it should stand.
15:41They're all cantilevered into the wall
15:43and there's [snorts] no railing. This
15:45building was built before building code
15:46came to Bucks County, so we got away
15:48with it. My parents used to have
15:50cocktail parties here and it was it was
15:52kind of amusing to watch people walk up
15:55and down the stairs with a drink in
15:57hand.
15:58>> [laughter]
15:58>> It was a little risky, but nobody's
16:00fallen off yet. Not even you.
16:03>> I wasn't that clumsy.
16:05Give me some [laughter] credit.
16:07This is one of my favorite tables. It
16:09was is one of the largest single-board
16:11tops that of its time. I think it was
16:14built in mid-1960s and Dad had gone to
16:17England to purchase these logs and he
16:20found this English oak burl log and
16:23among a
16:24bunch of other logs, English walnut. And
16:27he was so proud of himself. He said,
16:28"The Queen of England should have sold
16:30her jewels and kept those logs, but I
16:32got them."
16:33This is a Harry Bertoia sound sculpture
16:34and it's about to make a lot of noise.
16:38>> [music]
16:44>> I love that thing.
16:51>> [music]
16:56>> This is the reception house. This
16:57building was built in 1974. So, [music]
16:59George knew that this was going to be
17:01the last building he was going to be
17:02able to build here. With that in mind,
17:04he used some of the best materials
17:05available to him. So, we have some
17:06really [music] great pieces of furniture
17:07here. This is headboard is made with
17:09English oak burl. The coffee table is
17:11made with buckeye burl. [music] George
17:13also built this building during the
17:14energy crisis, so he thought fossil
17:16fuels wouldn't last forever. So, this
17:18house is entirely [music] run with
17:19electric. George intended on this
17:21building being kind of a retirement home
17:24for him and his wife,
17:25>> [music]
17:25>> but he never ended up retiring. So, they
17:27never ended up moving in, but this space
17:29has always been used as a place [music]
17:30to host.
17:33Part of the reason Dad built this is he
17:35was working on Governor Rockefeller's
17:37home in Pocantico Hills, which was
17:39designed by Junzo [music] Yoshimura, his
17:41best friend from the Raymond office.
17:43They asked Junzo to do the furniture and
17:45he says, "Why don't you have my friend
17:47[music] George do that instead?" So,
17:48that was one of the biggest commissions
17:50we've ever had. So, we had more money to
17:53spend [music]
17:54on things like new buildings than we did
17:56before.
17:57He actually imported plaster from Japan
18:00for the entryway and also the Japanese
18:02room. It's the only
18:06mat [music] footprint and has been used
18:09for tea ceremony and also as an extra
18:11bedroom. The bathtub looks pretty
18:13extravagant. It is a sunken bath and
18:16it's
18:17>> [music]
18:17>> decorated with penny round Japanese
18:19tiles and my children were quite young
18:21at the time in the [music] '70s and Dad
18:23invited them to write their names for
18:26eternity in this tile bathtub and create
18:29their own little designs. And my brother
18:30has his name in the tiles [music] in the
18:32bathroom as well.
18:35And the fireplace is built like a an old
18:37Pennsylvania farmhouse so that when the
18:40fire gets going, it heats the entire
18:42building and it stays hot enough so that
18:44you could cook in in [music] the stone
18:46walls.
18:50>> [music]
18:50>> When my father passed away in 1990, we
18:53decided we should expand its mission to
18:56include the preservation of [music] the
18:58Nakashima buildings and property in New
19:01Hope. And even though my mother is gone,
19:04now my brother also is gone, [music] we
19:06still have our woodworkers and our
19:09officers of the woodworking operation
19:10[music]
19:11focused entirely on making furniture.
19:22In Western education, you were taught to
19:25develop your ego and do your own thing
19:28and design something different than
19:29anybody else ever did. And Dad [music]
19:32was not that way. He was very rooted in
19:35tradition and I [music] think
19:37understanding the traditions of the past
19:39and the traditions of woodworking from
19:42the past are really important not to
19:45lose.
19:46>> [music]
19:46>> And it's also respecting the material.
19:49People nowadays cut down thousands of
19:51acres of trees [music]
19:53and there's so much material that's
19:55wasted and dad did not want to waste
19:58material. I think that's a really good
20:00[music] lesson for today's society not
20:03to waste what nature has given us and
20:06and to make the best use of it.

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of Inside George Nakashima’s Japanese-Style Home & Workshop | Unique Spaces | Architectural Digest by Architectural Digest, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 3,418 words across 556 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.