At the end of the month Tchavolo Schmitt is coming to tokyo.
He also appears in the movie Swing by Tony Gatlif:

Tokyo aqua park. Fishes and people.

since I decided I will leave japan at the end of the month everyone keeps asking.
I like and I critic Japan but it is an interesting and stimulating place to live in.
The question I asked myself is another:
after a year and a half in a new city, as I see it, there are two options  start settling down or leaving.
In practical terms would mean: stop living in a guest house,  start crucial activities that require 2-3 years involvement like start a gipsy band, a course of calligraphy and improve japanese language.
I feel this is necessary because one cannot live in a temporary state.  This, after the first period of excitement, must evolve.
Being under 30, under 1.8m tall, single, under 70kg, earning under 20,000€ a year and curious I donot see many reason for not going to another place. Because that is what I am doing, not leaving Japan but going to another place which in this case will be Beijing.

I like yoghurt. Eating it in Tokyo or Beijing is quite a different experience:

In tokyo one enters the omnipresent “conbini” open everyday, everyhour.

Then wonders inside in a storm of colour and lights. Goes to the “no-door” fridge and takes what he prefers.
At the counter the yoghurt ( one cup) will be placed in a plastic bag with the plastic spoon inside another plastic bag.
One can go out now but where to eat it? apparently beside construction workers nobody seems to eat in the streets so it is up to you to find a place hidden enough to eat your yoghurt. After eating one may want to go back to the conbini that is probably still the closest place where to find a trash bin.

Beijing: the shops, unless you are in the western like center might look like that.
The yoghurt is sold in a thick ceramic cup. With a grey green colour. A  foil seals the top.  There is one type, no choice.  After buying  one has to drink it with a strow . He cannot leave the area around the shop because the cup will be recicled.

Finally I publish a few pictures of the mt fuji climb in september 2007.

Yesterday we did what every decent person should do in tokyo: go surfing in kamakura.

that’s one of the key to understand japanese house design!

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?

This year golden week was only 4 days. No complain, no “bridges” between vacation days, we are good japanese workers.
Getting out from tokyo i went to japanese countryside. With bullet train:

First stop was Hamamatsu kite festival

Thank to S, T and I got trumpets in our hands:

Matsuri are the moment where the Shinto’s spirit of ecstasy comes up.

Second stop was the quiet rural area of Mori Machi

The days after no tea leaves picking due to the warui tenki ( bad weather) so we went to a nearby center to make our own pot. Soon the post will send me mine.

HEre the video of the lovely bday at the old people sento:

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

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

Standing bars are quite popular in Japan. Something completely missing in Italy.
Yesterday was the 6th anniversary of the best standing bar in Shimokitazawa where I had the oppportunity to play (not so nicely to be honest) with Sammy Barbeque ( the pirate), and Kume Django san (in the middle).
My apology to Piazzolla and Velazquez.

While I am reading The ethical function of Architecture by Karsten Harries a quotation  grabs my attention :

An authentic person always has time.
Heidegger, Sein un Zeit, 7th ed. (Tuebingen: Niemeyer,19553) p.410.

Usually in Italy when someone eats tofu people around him would look sorry and ask: “are you on a diet?”. Somehow tofu=tasteless experience.
I cannot deny that I was also part of that idea but since in Japan I have to say that tofu is good. No, I am not on a diet, tofu is good. Unfortunately what is exported is usually not that good. If you come to japan I recommend to try a supercool and oishii brand: otokomae.

Yesterday’s hanami has been partially ruined by heavy rain but still many people came to yoyogi park.
Since last year I have switched from piano to accordion initially for  practicality ( to rent a piano in tokyo is not easy and my room is as big n half coda piano) and bcause accordion has two important quality that a piano does not have: portability and the “long note” (one note can theoretically last forever).
Switching from piano to accordion has a much deeper meaning: it means switching from high music to low popular music. A piano performs at its best in a concert hall, in silence an accordion gives its best during a fair, in the streets, at night in half darkness. A piano can be played only with cleaned long hands. An accordion gives its best played by small fat greasy fingers. They belong to the sides of music: the high, theoretical abstract, precise, Apollonian and the popular, passionate, ecstatic and Dionysian one.
But both, if well interpreted, can lead make music to be the our unconscious memory of the lost eden (E.Cioran ).

Two weeks ago I finally did it: I bought books on amazon which is a really dangerous thing to start. Among those I bought there was The eyes of the skin by Juhani Pallasmaa which i walked by on a spring day in Helsinki.
Why to read the book:
-it brings sight down from the pedestal that western thought created
-in simple words Pallasmaa brings our attention back to the real concerns of architecture which have really little to do with retinal images

This should already be enough. The best thing Pallasmaa does is to bring (as other do, Steven Hall for example, just to name one) the discourse of architecture on architectural topics which have partially to do with geometry, image and language.
In rough words we could say that everything starts from the body, from the tactile feelings of the skin.

I am not surprised this comes from a scandinavian person. For what I have seen in my life the approach to architectural design has different roots in different areas:
- in italy, and south of europe it is almost a humanistic discipline. the story around the project is almost more important than the project itself. Do not forget the for Sottsass and many others a project is a metaphor to discuss life
- in northen europe (scandinavia especially) there is still a strong phenomenological approach.
-here in japan architecture belongs to the construction disciplines. of course it has a dense poetical spirit too.

Since a week the cherry blossom season started.
It is always a surprise how Tokyo people, which leave in one of the most urbanized area, still enjoy a natural event.  It is interesting because for once japanese seem to care about human relation more than social/work relation.
It is interesting because public space is used not only for mere consumption.
It is interesting because the shinto side of japanese spirits comes out.
Here some very short sequences from meguro river

The picture of today’s lunch brings up one of the few weakness of japanese cuisine: the food choice during hot weather.
Despite what japanese friends tell me that there are many japanese summer recipe, I am still skeptical about it.

The easier to eat are zaru soba, cold soba. Maybe one can switch to sushi or sashimi but not much more. In fact many people still eat more or less the same food they eat in winter time.
The problem starts from the fact that japanese eat fruits and vegetables in small amounts.  If one orders a tomato in an izakaya will get one ( or half) tomato nicely sliced. From this way of eating it is difficult and expensive to imagine a person in the summer eating a big bowl of salad with 3 tomatoes, salad, mushrooms and other things…

Co-branding is the usual strategy of fashion brands when it comes to architecture.
The two areas where this phenomenon is most visible are Ginza and Omotesando/Aoyama.
They are an open air contemporary architecture museum.
Here a view on Omotesando, By Ping Mag

An article of Ping mag on Taxi lights.

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?

On Galeriie.net there is a nice video about SANAA’s Zollverein school.

This is interesting even for no architect.
An interview with Tezuka architect about a very interesting kindergarden. A few clues: trees inside the building, a flat roof here kids play….

http://www.detail.de/Plus/Filme/De/2008-03-tezuka/tezuka

There an indescribable beauty in diagrams. Especially during this sur-modernité.
Tokyo is truly multi centered. Districts fight with each other trying to attract people to come and consume in their area. This a quick diagram I have been working on with my work collegues. Comments are welcome.

地下鉄　chikatetsu is the japanese word for underground metro train (with 3 ideograms: ground, under, iron).
Tokyo structure and layout is often influenced by it. Last week I saw the advertisement of a new mansion that had as a plus the fact of being 1 minute away from the metro station.
Japanese try to have their house and their job on the same metro line. For this reason magazines order flat rental opportunities based on metrolines. One can check all the flat available on the Odakyu line or the inokashira line…
If these seems rather dull and unexciting take a look at Joe Nishizawa’s pictures and probably  they will look quite close to an image of a futuristic Tokyo .

abbastanza ma purtroppo Tokyo divora ogni ora del giorno.
Viaggiare in Giappone è certamente diverso, immersivo, alienante ma anche un pò pericoloso non certo per l’incolumità fisica ma per i nostri abiti.

Mangiare con le bacchette, dalla delicata funzione indicatrice (come osservava Barthes), può essere una difficile e sbrodolante esperienza. Ecco una lista di pericolosità:

Udon*****
Grado di pericolosità massimo per gli spaghettoni in brodo. Nemmeno il cucchiaio vi salverà.  Sconsigliati se siete in una cena di lavoro.

Soba***
Dipende se li mangiate in brodo (meno complicati degli udon ma da non sottovalutare) oppure freddi.

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.

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

 http://www.vimeo.com/618420
A quite unique feature of Tokyo metro system are the woman only trains during rush hours. This was established to prevent sexual harassment.
A video of Ian Lynam gives more detail about it.

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 

on city of sound a nice overview of a book on SANAA’s houses.

watch the rest on flickr

Sto leggendo underground di murakami, un libro che raccoglie interviste delle vittime dell’attacco con gas nervino fatto dalla setta Aum nel 1995 e di alcuni membri della setta.
Non ho ancora finito il libro ma mi sarei aspettato di leggere le dichiarazioni più controverse da parte dei membri della setta. Quello che invece sorprende è la mancanza di rabbia che le vittime dell’attacco provano verso la setta Aum. Un certo disinteresse. Un distacco. Alcuni sono stati più sorpresi dalla mancanza di soccorsi che dall’attacco in sè.
Sorprende amche l’accettazione che hanno i giapponesi davanti a ciò che è più grande di loro. Davanti alla sconfitta. Forse come fu dopo la guerra mondiale, dove accettarono il controllo americano. Così come nello sport o in altre cose.
La maturità passa anch il saper accettare ciò che è al di fuori delle nostre possibilità.
Questo sorprende ancora di più quando si è nati in un paese in cui non si accetta mai la sconfitta. Sia essa politica, sportiva, economica… E’ sempre colpa dell’arbitro, della legge elettorale, della magistratura, della cina, dei terroristi, dell’euro, della classe politica, delle leggi, etc etc… Il male, l’errore,  è sempre al di fuori di noi. E’ sempre estraneo alla nostra apparente perfezione.

While thinking about this equation, look at their work.

Yasumichi Morita
website
interview

Fabio Novembre
website
blog

A day of interviews today.
Here you may find the SANAA’s one.

A few weeks ago I mentioned Ikeda as an interesting artist.
Soon there will be his first solo exhibition which I am looking forward to visit.
If you are into radical sound experiments, math and hamburgers this should be for you.

Here you may find an interview with one of the most interesting contemporary japanese architects.

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.