Apart from the use of wood, the apparently little consideration given earthquake protection in the structure itself is striking. Diagonal bracing, for example, is hardly ever seen in the walls or roof structure. Rigidly, however, is not the only way of protecting a structure against earthquakes. Wood is so flexible and can take more shear and torque for its weight than most other materials. So the usefulness of wood is really great in the making of traditional Japanese house. The materials which are used are naturally friendly. This is a very good quality of a Japanese traditional house. The journey makes use of strengths of wood. The walls consisting essentially of bamboo lattices heavily plastered with clay are not all substantial by Western standards but are surprisingly resistant to earthquakes. One room of the traditional house is plastered heavily on four walls in this way, with only a minimum entrance in one. This is directly connected to some of the main supports helps to strengthen the building. In constructing a house, the first step is to raise posts and beams until a skeletal structure stable enough to support a roof is completed. The space is organized by the roof and by the modular placement of the posts and columns. From this point on, design concerns itself with filling the spaces or the intervals between the posts and columns. The intellectual design of a Japanese house is very much well renowned around the world. The process of making houses applying these methods has been practiced for a long time. In Japanese design the wall has a different conceptual basis than that of Western design. Japanese walls are not defensive. In the West, by contrast, the wall is conceived as defensive, acting as a barrier between two opposing environments, such as winter cold and house warmth.
