ABSTRACT

MA: the natural distance between two or more things existing in a continuity" or "the space
delineated by posts and screens (rooms) or the natural pause or interval between two or more
phenomena occurring continuously.
Thus the word MA does not describe the West's recognition of time and space as different
serializations. Rather, in Japan, both time and space have been measured in terms of intervals.
Originally, the ideogram for MA consisted of the pictorial sign for "moon" - not the present
day "sun - under the sign for "gate". This ideogram, depicts a delicate moment, when the
moonlight streaming can be seen from the doorway. The aesthetics of the MA, translatable
with the ambiguous terms of "break, between, therefore indicates a portion of two-
dimensional space, closed in the door, but also a portion of time, in which the moon appears,
because, as noted by the same architect Arata Isozaki, "the space was perceived only in
relation to the flow of time." The traditional Japanese concept of MA (literally space / time) is
reflected in the Japanese culture, from building system to martial arts and the isometric
representation of physical space, this provides a different way of reading the architecture and
the landscape.

Ph: Sergio Camplone, Usual Place.