There are a lot of Oya-stone buildings in Utsunomiya City, Tochigi Prefecture where Oya Town, the production area of Oya-stone is located. Many historic Oya-stone buildings exist in the urban area of Utsunomiya City that is traditionally an important point for traffic. These buildings are important factors that add history and regional characteristics to the townscape, but in recent years, an increasing number of Oya-stone buildings have been demolished due to the decreasing opportunities for use, land reallocation, and redevelopment, etc. However, at the same time, a phenomenon has also been observed recently where the appearance urban voids have made the stone storehouses called "Kura" at the back of the properties emerge, which has developed the fragmentary townscape where several Oya-stone buildings can be seen. It is therefore necessary to view Oya-stone buildings as building stocks and reconsider the contemporary city townscapes. The purpose of this study is, focusing on 102 Oya-stone buildings in the central area, to clarify the building types and townscape characteristics from the characteristics of Oya-stone buildings and their appearance in the town.
First, the characteristics of Oya-stone buildings such as building date, floor number, use, construction method, roof shape, stone finishing and decoration, and building remodeling, etc were considered and organized, and they were classified into various types such as “2 stories under part of cladding stone Kura” that is a building built in old times with the first floor of vertical joint stones and the second floor plastered, “2 stories side parts of cladding stone Machiya” that is a store with stone-pitched sides, “2 stories masonry Kura” whose whole body is masonry and that has robust doors and modern ornaments, “2 stories RC piling stone Kura” that is a building with RC circumferential girder and frame structure many of which were built during Showa and postwar periods, “2 stories RC piling stone Kura” that is a large-scale building, “2 stories RC piling stone House” that used Oya-stones partially as curtain walls, “2 stories RC piling stone sign Shop” that put a sign in the front, and “2 stories wooden frame piling stone Kura” that is a building with the first floor that is piling stone and the second floor that is wooden.
Then, as the result of considering the way buildings appear in a town from the relationships between roads and urban voids neighboring Oya-stone buildings, a phenomenon was observed where the side of a building appear from urban voids in and out of the property, and characteristic townscapes were observed where several Oya-stone buildings were connected from the connection and adjacency of the buildings.
Finally, the townscape of Oya-stone buildings analyzed above were considered. Historic “2 stories under part of cladding stone Kura” are located near Hongo and Kiyosumicho Street, and large-scale "2 stories RC piling stone Factory" are seen along the river flowing through the urban area. 2 storehouses are adjacented across urban void out of the property. Several “2 stories side parts of cladding stone Machiya” and storehouses in the properties are seen in the roadside of highways, etc, and fragmentary landscapes where several Oya-stone buildings exist at the back of the property are seen when we walk into an alley.
In conclusion, Oya-stone buildings were classified into 8 types according to their design characteristics and fragmentary townscapes of urban areas were clarified from the appearance and aggregation of buildings.
