Monday, June 8, 2009

Kuma, Project, KDa, Aoki Jun and Yokohama w/ Koizumi, Mikan and Yamamoto

Friday, June 05, 2009

It has been a week since I last wrote. The past week has been full of work and firm visits. Our final project was due today, so I finally have time to catch up on blogs, pictures and sleep.

Let’s recap…

Last Friday (May 30th) we were lucky enough to go to Kengo Kuma’s office. Unfortunately, he was not available himself, but we were given a tour of the office. In contrast to the open, studio-like environment of Fujimoto Sou’s office, the Kuma office felt very much like…well like an office. There were partitions up and cubicles and it was crowded with books and magazines, but still very organized. To be honest, the tour was a little disappointing because they had very little that they could show us because of the nature of their projects and the confidentiality agreements with clients. They, like many architects in Japan, work through models and do a lot of competitions. It seemed that they weren’t really sure what to show us, so we just kind of looked around and asked some questions, then we were off.

It was rainy and our final projects were due in a week, so the rest of Friday and the vast majority of the weekend was spent in our rooms, working on the design projects. We asked Don to make our deadline Friday the 5th so that we could have our last weekend in Japan to explore and prepare for our flights home. It cost me a lot of sleep, but I’m pretty happy with our decision. It always feels good to be done.

As I said, the weekend was spent working a lot and sleeping very little. On Monday (June 1st) we had our last preliminary meetings with Don before the Friday due date. It was brief, and the rest of the day was spent on work. Jeff and I have worked together pretty well on the project, with him focusing on the model and renderings and me trying to get the plans of our very narrow building to fit all the programmed space. Of course, all this occurred in the midst of technical difficulties, just to make our lives more fun.

On Tuesday (June 2) we met with Astrid Klein of Klein Dytham Architects at Gallery Ma (one of the most famous architectural galleries in the world) in Tokyo. KDa has an exhibition at the gallery right now, so Astrid introduced us to their projects, their process and their design ideals. She is energetic and eccentric and overall, just fun to listen to. She and her partner, Mark Dytham, were educated in London and came to Japan where they worked in Toyo Ito’s office. Toyo Ito is still one of the most renowned architects in Japan. KDa is interesting because they don’t really have any particular style; they tend to take on any project that is new and exciting and approach each one individually. The foundation of KDa was really the first time foreign architects had been able to really establish themselves in Japan. Since then, they have pushed the boundaries, blending the lines between architecture, interior design and furniture. The firm has also founded a series of architectural presentations called Pecha Kucha Night. This is a place for architectural discussion, and the concept has even found its way to the Cal Poly SLO campus.

On a more personal note, Astrid Klein was the first famous female architect that I have met, and I was not disappointed. To be honest, I thought she was adorable, and I loved that she was actually bold enough to be playful with her architecture. As she said, “architecture is just too damn serious”. Occasionally we need to remind ourselves to lighten up and keep an open mind to what it means to create an enjoyable space. Granted, some of the designs were a little kitschy for me, but there were others that stunned me and I think that’s a major compliment to the designers, that they can continuously be surprising and showcase their skill by avoiding becoming “stylized”.

After the meeting, Jeff and I decided to take advantage of what very well might have been our last clear day in Tokyo. We were near Roppongi, a district in Tokyo that I had not been to yet. Of course, we are going there with Don tomorrow, but Jeff and I got a preview and headed to Tokyo Tower to photograph the city from above. The tower itself is a pretty obvious Eiffel Tower knock-off, which has been painted red. Of course, they had to add a spike to the top so that they can technically be 10 feet taller than the original. At first I was nervous because I remember my experience at the top of the tower in Paris, but it was not bad. The upper observatories are all enclosed in glass, unlike parts of the Eiffel Tower, so my fear of heights was somewhat diminished. I even stood on the structural glass “look down” windows in the floor. After taking panoramic photos of Tokyo, we headed back to the Olympic Youth Center for…you guess it…more work.

On Wednesday (June 3rd) we had a meeting with Aoki Jun at his office. He is another pretty well known Japanese architect. His office was interesting because of his own mindset. He considers his office like a university; no employee can stay on longer than 4 years. This offers a constant change in the office, sparking new ideas and new influences. Probably the most famous recent buildings by Aoki Jun are the Louis Vuitton stores in Japan. These stores tend to focus on unique materiality with relatively simple forms. Again, the office was very model intensive and we had a very thorough and informative discussion with Aoki Jun himself, though I’m sorry to say that it wasn’t more interactive because we were all so tired.

Wednesday night was another late work night. I don’t think I went to bed earlier than 2 am this entire week. Luckily, we were meeting later than usual on Thursday, so despite going to bed at 4 or 5 am, I was able to get about 6 hours of sleep.

Thursday (June 4th) was our last day to finish up our projects. It was also the day that we were going to Yokohama for a day with three firms there. We met at Shibuya Station at around 12:30 and headed to Yokohama to meet with Koizumi Masao at his office. The office had planned a whole day for us in Yokohama, which was incredibly nice of them. At his office, Koizumi Masao gave us a presentation in English on his work. His office is somewhat unique in that, since he is a teacher at Kyushu University in Yokohama, he cannot legally be the head or founder of the firm. Of course, in practice, he is the head architect, but on paper he does not run the firm.

Koizumi Masao’s firm, as do many of the firms we’ve seen, design mostly through model. They do not really use any digital techniques and emphasize modeling and sketching more. He has recently won an award from the AIJ, the Architectural Institute of Japan, in 2007. Finally, he designed the Zou-no-Hana (Elephant Trunk) Port Project. The name is based on the nickname given to the port for its elongated and curved shape.

It was interesting also that Koizumi’s firm organized for us to meet with other architects in the area. After we were through at his office, we headed just down the block to meet with Mikan Gumi, a firm made up of 4 principal designers; 3 are Japanese and the fourth is French. We met with Manuel Tardits, obviously the French member of the group. The other members are Kamo Kiwako, Sogabe Masahumi and Tekeuti Masayoshi. This firm focuses not only on architecture, but on design of all levels. They do projects ranging from product design to installments to interiors to actual buildings. It seems like they see architecture in each of these realms of design. It seems that they often design exhibitions; for example they designed an exhibition for the Hakone Art Musuem, which I visited a few weeks ago, as well as the pavilion for the 150th anniversary of the opening of Yokohama Port.

This most recent exhibition is called Hajimari no Mori (Forest of Beginnings) Y150. The design is based off of ‘trees’ of structure, all built out of simple steel pipes. These organically based pavilions relate to the existing trees on the site and recall the time 150 years ago when the area that they stand on was a forest. The goal is to celebrate Yokohama’s growth as a city, as well as the opening of Japan to foreign trade, but at the same time, to encourage future growth in a sustainable and healthy direction.

After the Mikan office, we (including Koizumi and Tardits) went to Yamamoto Riken’s office. This firm is also pretty well known and does some larger buildings. Many of the more recent projects are competition based and are overseas. In fact, they now have an office in Beijing. Their work includes Guan Yuan in Beijing, Yokosuka Museum of Art, Pan-Gyo Housing (competition work, not completed project), and the Odawara Public Hall. They tend to push the bounds in terms of form and materials, but also seem to focus on master planning for some of the competitions. As their work overseas grows, the office works hard to keep up, sometimes putting in as many as 100 hours in a week. As Americans, this was a little intimidating for most of us with our 40 hour work week.

After we were done with the offices, we went to the Osanbashi Yokohama International Passenger Terminal by Foreign Office Architects. The building is really spectacular. It extends out to the water, but seems to remain part of the landscape. It is comprised of terraces and curved paths, created by wooden slats or grassy mounds. The building itself is sunken under what becomes almost a seaside park.

Next, we visited the work of our guides, including the Zou no Hana project by Koizumi and the Hajimari no Mori by Mikan. Both projects were very well done, in clean, but still somewhat industrial materials. Yet somehow these metals recall organic forms and create a natural feeling in the landscape. I was very impressed with both works and the deep roots of their concepts within the community and the history of Yokohama.

Finally, our touring was done. We went to China Town in Yokohama as a class for dinner, which turned out to be at least a 5 course meal. Unfortunately for me, most of the dishes had pork in them which has a tendancy to make me sick, but still the meal was very nice and the beer was good. Though I’m not sure how good of an idea the beer ended up being since we got home after 10 pm and I ended up having to pull an all-nighter to finish up the plans and presentation stuff for our project that was due at 12 the next day. I finally went to sleep at 7 am and woke up at 11.

Our review today went pretty well. We went pretty early on since Jeff and I were both very tired and we wanted to get it over with. Don requested that we add a little bit to the project before we present it at Cal Poly in the fall, but this was by no means an unusual request. To be honest, I’m surprised that so many of the presentations were as well done as they were. With how little time we had available to design and complete the project, what with moving every few days and trying to see Japan, I was very much impressed with the work of my peers.

Tonight, I need to catch up on sleep, but we have to move out again tomorrow morning. We’re going to go to Roppongi to see Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Midtown. Then Jeff and I are planning on either finding a love hotel or an internet cafĂ©, just for the experience. I will let you know how all that goes in a few days.

Again, sorry for getting so behind, but there you have it.

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