41 Facts About Antonin Raymond

Antonin Raymond, born as Antonin Reimann was a Czech American architect.

Antonin Raymond was the Consul of Czechoslovakia to Japan from 1926 to 1939, in which year the Czech diplomacy was closed down after the occupation of the European country by Nazi Germany.

Antonin Raymond applied these principles to a wide range of residential, commercial, religious, and institutional projects in Japan, America, India, and the Philippines.

Antonin Raymond was born on 10 May 1888, in Kladno, Central Bohemia to Alois Reimann, a Jew of German descent, and his wife Ruzena, a Catholic.

Antonin Raymond started at the Realne gymnasium in Kladno, then continued at a similar school in Prague.

In 1906 Antonin Raymond entered Vysoka Skola Technicka, the Czech Polytechnic Institute, studying under Josef Schultz and Jan Koula.

Antonin Raymond completed his studies in Trieste in 1910 before leaving for New York City.

Antonin Raymond began studying painting at the Independent School of Art in the Lincoln Square Arcade Building in 1912, but was forced to curtail a painting trip to Italy and North Africa with the onset of World War I On his trip back to New York, he met his future wife and business partner, Noemi Pernessin, and they were wed on 15 December 1914.

Antonin Raymond became concerned that "the design had nothing in common with Japan, its climate, its traditions, its people and its culture".

Antonin Raymond's workforce were enthusiastic in their use of this new material, likening it to the walls of traditional kura storehouses.

From 1928 to 1930, Antonin Raymond designed and remodelled the American, Soviet and French embassies.

Antonin Raymond undertook work for the Rising Sun Petroleum Company, designing 17 earthquake-proof and fireproof employee houses, the general office building, the manager's residence and two prototype service stations, one in steel and the other in concrete.

Since the Reinanzaka House, Antonin Raymond had been interested in the work of Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier.

Antonin Raymond acknowledged that further contribution of Corbusier's ideas to the practice came in 1930, when Kunio Maekawa joined.

Antonin Raymond later applied Le Corbusier's ideas to vernacular Japanese architecture.

Where Corbusier had used rough masonry and a tiled butterfly roof, Antonin Raymond used cedar with larch thatch.

In 1922, Antonin Raymond had been admitted to Tokyo Golf Club and when it relocated to Asaka, Saitama in 1932, he was asked to design it.

In 1935, Antonin Raymond's office had accepted a commission to design a dormitory for the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, part of French India in southeast India.

Antonin Raymond sought to mitigate the effects of the Pondicherry climate and oriented the Golconde dormitory, so that its main facades faced north and south to make use of the prevailing breeze.

Antonin Raymond developed a prospectus for aspiring architects to come and live and study at New Hope and he attracted at least 20.

Once the students had become settled, Antonin Raymond sought real-world projects for them to work upon, to put his theories into practice.

Antonin Raymond formed a partnership with civil engineer Arthur Tuttle, structural engineer Elwyn Seelye and mechanical engineer Clyde Place.

Controversially, in 1943, Antonin Raymond was asked to design a series of middle class Japanese style homes so that the Army could test the effectiveness of ordnance intended for use in targeted air bombing raids on Tokyo and other Japanese cities.

Antonin Raymond admitted in his autobiography that he was not proud of the work.

Whilst Antonin Raymond explored pottery and sculpture, Rado pursued an orthogonal rationalism that Antonin Raymond would eventually distance himself from.

In 1947, Antonin Raymond petitioned General MacArthur for permission to enter occupied Japan in order to participate in the reconstruction process.

Antonin Raymond received the commission for the Reader's Digest Building from Mrs DeWitt Wallace on his return from Japan in 1949.

Antonin Raymond wanted a design that would show the best that America could offer.

Antonin Raymond cited the design of the Hiroshima Peace Museum by Kenzo Tange as being an external imitation of the Reader's Digest Building.

Antonin Raymond purchased land in the Nishi Azabu district of Tokyo to build his new office and living quarters.

Antonin Raymond sought to use the design and construction of the office as a platform to inform prototype dwellings for the post war reconstruction of Japan.

In 1955, Antonin Raymond began a commission in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture for a Music Centre to house the Gunma Symphony Orchestra.

Antonin Raymond achieved these aims by using a series of 12 centimetres thick, reinforced concrete ribs connected together like an accordion and spanning 60 metres.

Antonin Raymond encouraged him to break away from Wright's rigid style and explore the design of the Reinanzaka House.

Antonin Raymond increased her interest in Japanese art and philosophy, including ukiyo-e woodblock prints and introduced Raymond to various influential people, including the mystic philosopher Rudolf Steiner.

Antonin Raymond expanded her design repertoire to include textiles, rugs, furniture, glass and silverware.

When Wright left, Antonin Raymond set up his own office, he advertised himself as a specialist in reinforced concrete.

Antonin Raymond was aware of its textural properties from Cass Gilbert, its structural ones from Wright, and its benefits in relation to earthquake proofing.

Antonin Raymond used precast concrete to form decorative elements for the building, such as window mullions.

Antonin Raymond's use of a traditional post and beam structure in concrete for the Reinanzaka House was a technique that was adopted by post war Japanese architects such as Kenzo Tange.

Antonin Raymond died at St Mary's Hospital in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, on 25 October 1976, aged 88.