Beijing Olympics

“Beijing, evidently, has other priorities. For all the sleek modernity of much of the construction, there’s no mistaking the old-fashioned monumentalist approach behind it. This is an Olympics driven by image, not by sensitive urban planning.”
This and much more in an interesting article of Paul Goldberger

Beijing vs Tokyo

Yesterday I came back from Beijing for some job interview.
Before posting general impression, here is another map comparison:

First a map of tokyo. the red line is the yamanote line which is really the linking line of tokyo transport system.

This is Beijing second ring. I have chosen it because it seemed the boundary of the center of the city.
Probably most foreigners live inside it. The second line goes under it. Yamanote line/ second ring seems a fair comparison in matter of relation of the city in a simpler way
yamanote line : tokyo = 2nd ring : beijing

Here are the two together.

The last shows Tokyo Beijing and Milan’s Navigli ring.

I received an email where I was asked to suggest which one is better to go for an internship.
Please consider that I have been in Tokyo 1.5 years, in Beijing just a few days.
Beijing is developing, Tokyo too but has already reached a high level of development.
Beijing urban planning has a russian flavor: large and long roads which make it a “car city”
Tokyo has no urban planning. Getting lost in tiny streets late at night is one of the best thing one can do.
Beijing is a construction site. I would imagine sometimes not so pleasant to live in.
Beijing is much more polluted.
Beijing is dusty. Tokyo, after a while, feels too clean.
In Beijing there are streets with trees, in Tokyo probably one or two.
Beijing is a teenager, with contrasts, virtues, dreams and possibilities.
Tokyo is more adult: efficient, polite, clean and established.

A foreigner in Tokyo is, at the beginning lost but quickly can feel well integrated.
Some cultural barriers, luckily, will always remain.
IN beijing I felt the gap between foreigners and locals is much bigger.
Foreigners tend not to speak chinese, have better salary which creates a ghetto.
Young people in Beijing speak better english than those in Tokyo.
Therefore foreigners in tokyo speak better japanese than those in beijing do with chinese.
Beijing gives more opportunities and contrasts, Tokyo more efficiency and quality.

As usual there is no conclusion because it depends mainly on what a person is looking for and his capacity of adaptability

Tokyo Fashion

an article you might find interesting about tokyo’s fashion.

Architecture for the eye

A few days ago I saw a little book with a collection of picture of housing complex.
Today I read the interview by Ping Mag with the author Ken Oyama.

Without any doubt the work is visually appealing, joins a certain tendency that takes alook to daily “low culture” objects. Nothing that new.
What worries me is another aspect:
-isn’t it dangerous to look at architecture in such a visual way (read the article) ?

-after looking at a nice pattern do we still realize that that black square is a little window from which a not so well paid worker looks out?
-does this visual binge hide the fact that this building do mostly nothing to increase one’s living dignity?

Il servo del principe

Libeskind è un abile affabulatore. Capace come pochi di assemblare stereotipi e simboli dandogli una forma accattivante. Libeskind è anche l’autore del nuovo progetto di ground zero a NY e dello storto il grattacielo a banana, scusate dalla curvatura ispirata da Leonardo comelui la definisce, nella ex zona fiera.
All’insaputa di molti ( troppi ?) pochi giorni fa ha presentato il nuovo Museo d’arte contemporanea di MIlano che si troverà all’interno di Speculandia nella zona ex-fiera.
Oltre alle osservazioni fatte da DOMUS ci sono un paio di quesiti che affiorano:
mr. Libeskind con il suo studio internazionale a NY,Milano, e chissà dove quanto ha veramente capito il genius loci di Milano? Perchè lui e i suoi amici StarArchitechts e i politici e gli speculatori che ci sono dietro non vogliono capire che Milano non è New York, nè Dubai, nè Tokyo?  Perchè essere sempre così servili verso il potere?
Mi permetto, senza pemesso di riportare l’articolo della DOMUS:

Construction Fence

Ping Mag online magazine published an article on construction fences featuring some works of Studio Han Design.

Wrapping

It is wall known that japanese have developed a unique sensitivity to wrapping.
Take a look to some very nice wrapping paper

Did Milan win?

Yesterday Milan was announced to be the host of 2015 Expo.
Who did really win Milan’s citizens or the usual developer (i.e. Ligresti & C)?

Last week at the opening of Sakura Cafè in Tokyo Midtown I had the chance to meet Dr. Julian Worrall which is working and teaching here in Japan. Then I found an interview (and the longer essay )to the most powerful developer in Tokyo Minoru Mori which is worth reading.

One may see the completely different approach to city development which makes clear what european cities have as a unique element: the overlapping of history.

Website update

I have uploaded two competition I did in the last months:Arcipelago and Tea House, with Honda-san.

Elements of urbanscape: taxi

An article of Ping mag on Taxi lights.

but why?

At universities and studios we are told for who to design, to concern about the target, the production methods, the budget, the time line,  the cultural back ground (sometimes) and so on…

I have yet not heard any interesting answer about why to design?
I do not mean the usual banal answer “to satisfy contemporary needs” which always forgets to understand that we create our own (tertiary needs) according to nature our needs are pretty simple.

Then if we look many designers/architects are concern with quantity.
( they want to build and to produce, does not matter that much for who, where and when)

Others are concern with fame: anything that makes them popular is good, it does not matter what as far as the project rises interest. ( design fairs are the peak of this approach).

Others are concerned with ego: especially architects have the small god desire. In this approach what matters is the development of a personal language and theory.

What we should be concerned about, improvement based on human standards and quality, is not really popular amongst designers. Because it does not sell.
Because to be publish one needs something catchy, possibly that involves a superficial influence from another discipline ( maths, philosophy, music…).

One last question remains. I read once an observation of Wittgenstein which stated: “one needs to be a good man in order to be a good philosopher”.

I wonder if we believed that in order to be a good architect one needs to be a good man,
how many (star)architects would remain above a level of decency?

Kawakubo in Detroit

If you do not know who Rei Kawakubo is, If you do not know Commes des Garcon, or you have never seen any of their shops (or this one in Paris), please read some of these.

Plagiarius award

We (westerns ) often accuse chinese company to copy our products.
Look at the Plagiarius award and you will find that they are not the only one.

Uniqlo

Uniqlo is the king brand of cheap & chic clothes here in Japan.
An interview with the founder on CNN that you might want to look at.

Optical Dot starts!

Tokyo Metropolitan Highway is a massive road system built inside the city, between buildings, above stations. Being overimposed on the existing urban landscape its shape is rich of sharp turns, slopes and crossings. This situation creates several thousand accidents every year. Tokyo Metropolitan Office started a campain, Tokyo Smart Driver, in order to improve driving condition. Different projects are carried on: improving safety conditions, light installation, adv. graphic, a music cd to listen while driving.

Studio Han Design is involved with the Optical Dot project.
The first trial on a new design for driving in Japan has started !
- Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway (Shutoko) starts making more comfortable environment for drivers -

Shutoko starts a trial experiment on 5th Feb 2008 as a part of traffic-control measures for a route between Bijogi Junction on Saitama-line and the tollgate on Urawaminami-line.
This experimental project uses a white oval shape pattern on the road surface to help drivers to feel their speed naturally.
This is the first trial on Sequence Design* on road surface in Japan and represents a new approach to traffic-control measures

*Sequence Design
Design for road space that enables drivers to feel the gradual change of the road and to adapt to it.

More:
*images and video simulation

Yu-un house

I had the opportunity a few weeks ago to visit this private house during a photography exhibition vernissage. It is usually not opened to the public unless the owner, Takeo Obayashi, is opening on special occasion. The architecture by Tadao Ando is completed by two projects by Eliasson and Tokujin.
Here an article about it.
here something more about the quasi brick used by eliasson 

L’ultima nostalgia

Mi permetto di pubblicare un’intervista fatta da  Boeri / Sottsass pubblicata in Abitare 479, febbraio 2008 che ho ricevuto tramite l’interessante newsletter di Prestinenza Puglisi.

Sono un disegnatore
Ettore Sottsass: Sono malato, ma di un male relativo, per cui per lunghi periodi è quasi come se stessi bene. Qualche volta invece il male alla schiena diventa così forte che il mio cervello è come imprigionato nel dolore…

Stefano Boeri: La presenza della malattia non è una novità nella tua vita.

E.S. Nei primi anni Sessanta ho avuto una grave forma di nefrosi. Ricordo che un medico italiano mi aveva invitato a fare testamento. Eppure non provavo dolore: morivo e basta. Finché un giorno, nella primavera del 1962, Roberto Olivetti non mi convinse ad andare a farmi curare negli Stati Uniti, a Palo Alto, dove lavorava il Nobel della medicina che aveva inventato il prenesone, la prima forma di cortisone. E lo usava per curare le nefrosi…

Toyo Ito in Barcelona

watch the rest on flickr

Arrivederci maestro

December 30th 2007 Ettore Sottsass dies.
Too many times Sottsass is referred as one of the postmodern maestro. This is quite a limited way of looking at the 90 years of experiments, travel, adventure that he went through.

I highly recommend to read his writings. In those pages the immeasurable human dimension of his thinking appears clear. Sottsass used architecture and design to discuss life.
*************************************
Alcuni link interessanti:

-Ettore Sottsass, biografia, immagini…
- un saggio di Gianni Pettena
-alcune trasmissioni radiofoniche su Ettore Sottsass

_su patasign.it un imperdibile video. Un Sottsass ai tempi diOlivetti

*interview (from the 34min, but watch Bruce Mau’s interview too)

Italy : Fabio Novembre = Japan : Yasumichi Morita ?

While thinking about this equation, look at their work.

Yasumichi Morita
website
interview

Fabio Novembre
website
blog

ArchiStarLand

Today I went to Omotesando for a site visit concerning a proposal we are elaborating.
Omotesando is nowadays an architectural branded museum. What is surprising is the low quality of public space of this street. This is quite understandable if we think that the main developer of the area are private construction company, fashion brands with the final touch of Starchitect. None of the three is interested in what is happening between buildings.What is especially bad is the street furniture ( lamp poles, bridges, benches, floor pavement).
After I went inside the new MVRDV building “Gyre” (branded building must have a name nowadays), next to SANAA’s, in front of Ando’s.
Few observation:
-the building has a relatively quite facade for tokyo. this was one of the intentions of the design
-on the adv brochure it is written:
The GYRE experience takes you to a space where imagination expands and shopping becomes more conscious. Here you find materials energized by exquisite craftmanship, design that inspires everyday life, care for the environment, the beauty and richness of the seasons”
After reading my memories went back to university project presentations where everyone is writing “these new space is a new experience, enhancing your …., the great feeling….super…wellness…” Then one turns to the project images and not it is not so sure how much of that is really perceivable.
In my opinion the GYRE does not differ that much from other brand-architecture but i did get a lot of inspiration, negative one.
-technology: it is possible to connect your mobile with the GYRE website and get information. In this way one should “Shop and Think” as the brochure claims?
This connection between technology and real space should have probably been developed with some physical computing expert to influence the architecture on a deeper level. Placing 4 screen on each floor, in2008, is not enough.

Animation of the building.

Conclusion:
*In today’s StarArchitecture, as in politics, on the opposite of physics, words are facts.
Talk well, sell your self well and everything will be fine.

Harajuku’s fashion

Tokyo is famous for its fashion. I think one important reason is the true city nature of Tokyo.
The city is often defined as the place where we meet strangers. In this sense Tokyo is a perfect example. It is pervaded by collective solitudes that allow individual freedom.
Between the many Tokyo areas, Harajuku is the fashion spot.

On saturday afternoon it gets crowded of Gothic Lolitas,

Visual Kei,

Cosplay 

Why Japan?

I am often asked why I came to Japan. Many reasons that could be summarized in the different kangaekata, way of thinking of japanese people.  For example look at this article about the new iPhone which is quite a success everywhere in the world but still not in tha japanese market.

Shinjuku Lights Up

This year Shinjuku Southern Beat project lights up!

here the website (japanese only but with animation)
for more information about previous years:

Shinjuku Southern Beat 2005

Shinjuku Southern Beat 2006

Aarchitecture, Bamboccioni and houses

A few weeks ago the italian prime minister Padoa Schioppa used the word bamboccioni (that has nothing to do with futurism abd could be translated as mama’s boy) referring to the over 30 years old adults that still live at home with mama and papa.
This month Shinkenchiku (the new architecture, a japanese architectural magazine) published a series of projects done by young japanese architects (young for real, around 30-33 years old).
All the projects are private houses, which is the typical first architectural commission.
Most of them have worked in the main studios (SANAA, Aoki, etc…).
So here is the beauty of a globalized world: on one side a 35 years old that still lives in the parents home, on the other a 35 years old who has just built the a new house.
Here are some of them:

DORELL GHOTMEH TANE / ARCHITECTS
Only one of the 3 partner is japanese but looking at their first projects and at their CV we can have serious hope for this studio.
/www.dgtarchitects.com/

The work of Hiroshi Kikuchi is interesting but what impressed me the most is the way he presents his projects on the website: self taken images, people with real smiles (not like next architect) somehow it seems a genuine person.
http://www.hiroshikikuchi.com/

The ever smiling (in pictures) Nakamura
http://www.nakam.info

The forward looking 000studio
http://www.000studio.com

That’s it for today.

Japanese abroad

Lately two exhibition opened showing the work of two of most interesting designer and architect of Japan.
Kengo Kuma in Padoa:

Article here.

Tokujin Yoshioka in Miami:

via Dezeen

Muji

Behind of the success of Muji there is the different japanese sensitivity:
Look at this year competition to get a better idea

Useful design

2007 index Award, sometimes design can really improve life.

Snow in Tokyo

Last night I went to Tonerico installation inc.
If you do not Tonerico look here, it is one of the most promising design studio from japan.
Unfortunately I do not have any picture

location: http://www.csdc.jp/event/2007/12/snow-vol2.html

Space for your future exhibition

 ”Space for your future” I was expecting an exhibition somehow similar to the Wired Magazine issue co-edited by OMA/AMO in which 20 new spaces were proposed.
The exhibition presents different works dealing with space (even if I did not understand why some where there).
The curator idea is not clearly explain, at least not in english. Therefore the risk is to turn the museum into a funfair for adults with a university degree. In some moments I did have this feeling.
I would recommend to people not too much into art/architecture, many works are really well known.
My conclusion:
-Ishigami Junya will be the next big thing of japanese architecture because he is good (even should develop more his own approach, to much SANAA)  and because it seems  he is the protegé of Sejima. (just personal opinion)

-video art needs to much time to be seen, maybe only 5% watch a 3min video so it should be communicated in a different way
-the work of Carsten Nicolai was a bit disappointing ( but usually is very interesting)
-SANAA’s flower house is the end stop? Will they make it to go further? Hard to believe. now is curved glass walls, essential furniture and flowers.

architecture of control

Architecture of control: the fence between USA and Mexico.
An article of Los Angeles Time

about skins…

Tokyo is always changing as a theater scenography. This project by Franklin Azzi Architecture pushes it to the limit.

the designer’s envies…

One or two years ago I read this nice book by the italian mathematician and writer Odifreddi
about what a mathematician envies about other arts. In this case he envies the writer’s pen, the painter’s brush and the musician’s wand (not sure about the word “wand”).
It could be interesting to see what are corresponding for the architect. In my opinion they might be:
- the lightness of words. Words give form to ideas in a quick and light way. No need to submit to the dictatorship of a heavy body (as for architecture)
- the omnipresence of sounds.
sounds are architectures. not only around us but inside us.
- the intimacy of food. again it has to do with introducing something inside us. touching it in a much more intimate way.
- the diverse glance of photography: many times photographer achieve what designers/architects want with the lightness of an image. no concrete,plastic,building, taking space…

Shinjuku Southern Beat 2007

Last night the brave Mita-san and Honda-san supervised the installation of this year shinjuku’s fence. Through the life of an imaginary character some aspects of the future shinjuku are explained.
Direction: Studio Han Design
Illustration: Kato Takafumi
Graphic: Tycoon Graphics
Photo: Scuderia Honda Design

in memory of Alitalia

Surfing around internet I found this picture of the Alitalia food set from 1972.
A project by Joe Colombo and Ambrogio Pozzi, produced by Richard Ginori.
When Italy had something to say…

100, 100, 100

The 24th of October Bruno Munari would have been 100.
For those who do not know him please take a look to the most creative, eclectic, light, humorous,  wise,  of  the italian designers…

thinking forest published

photo by momoko japan

The project “thinking forest” has been published on the online magazine newcityskyline.
There is even a quotation from my semi-serious diary:

http://www.newcityskyline.com/ThinkingForest.html

We are on Domus

In the studio we are happy to have been published in the last issue of Domus magazine. For more info.

about tokyo’s architecture

An interesting interview with Tsukamoto-san, one of the two partner forming Atelier Bow Wow. The studio in the last years published different books on Tokyo.
Reading through can give an idea of why Tokyo is so peculiar.

corbu

Last night i went to see Le Corbusier exhibition at Mori Museum.
Few remarks:
-Mori museum is open till 22.00, it was full. Enjoying the visit on the 53 floor at night after working is excellent.

-the full scale mockup of one flat from the Unite d’Habitacion was really interesting to visit

-exhibition design in japan seem to have a different role: so far the exhibition I have seen do not try to elaborate the material exhibited. For example Corbu exhibition design is done by Mori museum. The result consists in simply dividing the works in main groups, placing into the space and putting some spotlight on it. Nostalgic feeling for Castiglioni, Albini, Rota… Probably the rationalist western mind suits better to this type of activities.

-the exhibition consists in many paintings, some models, 1:1 scale of the petit cabanon(very long line queuing ), 1:1 of unite d’habitation flat, 1:1 of atelier (not so meaningful i would say), some models, pictures. For a general public is good. Maybe a bit more effort on the museology part would have been appreciated

-museum are always “ippai” (full)

-Roppongi Hills complex is really a non-place, if I was asked i would definitely say that it is the architecture of the letzte Mensch: pre-recorded voices, nobody around, impossible to get orientation, false smiles, tepidness, the air is not cold, is not warm, simply is not. There is no utopia, there is no cultural plan, there is no desire, there is nothing beside consumption. A boutique-prison for dreamless wealthy people. But please enjoy it.

-to be an architect you must be optimistic and believe in progress

-Tokyo at night, from the 53 floor, is elegant.