23. Voracious Fast 04/21/10Writing/文章
Now that we have entered a phase of involuntary fasting, any anxiety that the architect is destined to turn into the marginalized hunger artist of our time, soon to be replaced by an omnivorous beast – be it a construction consortium, plan-buro or engineering mammoth - seems foolish. Never have the dominant systems been so frail. [...]
22. The house that used to fly 03/14/10Writing/文章
As the Narita Express, the train between airport and city, dips under the Sumidagawa River on its journey toward Tokyo Station, it passes a monstrous looking structure; a colossal spaceship on massive piers, festooned with a demonic oculus and lined with pulsing red lights...
18. Relations 11/20/09Writing/文章
Oedipus and Kronos never reached Japan. For in this country it is not inevitable that a young architect instantaneously commits patricide upon leaving his master, nor is it given for a master to impair his “renegade’s” prospects.
13. Learning from Japan 11/10/08Writing/文章
Besides the release of Ready to Die by the Notorious B.I.G. (‘94) and SMLXL by Rem Koolhaas (‘95), few events during my student years impacted my development as an architect more than ...
10. Cutting Fabric 09/01/08Writing/文章
Domus #917. The opening of a new Yoji Yamamoto boutique in Manhattan early February went almost unnoticed by the progressively more architecturally minded New York public. The reports of Junya Ishigami’s subtle but brilliant renovation of a triangular one-story brick structure were lost among announcements of yet another luxury high-rise development [...]
8. The Culture of Decongestion 08/01/08Writing/文章
Domus #915. For those not yet lured away by the “bling” of Beijing or the dollars in Dubai, the condition of decline in the developed world should be a key subject of creative exploration and intellectual debate within architecture and urbanism today. Be it well documented examples as Detroit and the eastern part of Germany, [...]
6. SANAA’s Foreign Mission 02/01/08Writing/文章
a+u magazine, #449. “Thank you for making SANAA international.” The words of appreciation Kazuyo Sejima used at my farewell party from the firm last November, at a new Italian osteria near the office in Tokyo, were engaging. I started in early 2000, first as intern, then as staff focusing on the firms work outside [...]
5. Beautiful Rough 12/01/07Writing/文章
Domus #909. The New Museum of Contemporary Art opened its new building in downtown Manhattan to the public in early December. The roughly 6000m2, eight-story structure of loosely stacked boxes provides the institution a perfect platform for the advancement of new ideas, in a time and place where they are most needed. The New Museum was [...]
3. New Sobriety 07/01/02Writing/文章
Idea Magazine #293. “…solving a problem simply means representing it so as to make the solution transparent.”1 A recent interest has developed in the phenomenology of diagrams in mathematics, cognitive science, and architectural theory. Traditionally, the diagram is used as a rational tool for analysis and design in these fields, as an abstract representation of a more [...]