From today this blog will move to a self owned location:

www.giacomobutte.com/blog

So please take a look there if you have time, energy and will.

finally after the failure of translating my name into japanese (jakomo= “ja” snake+”ko” kid, child+ “mo” moist and many others, last name gets into a simple “hit me”)

in chinese i coud find giacomo>>
jacques ( its french translation)>>
yake ( which is its chinese common translation) ya( elegant)+ke (translitteration)

Butte becomes a bu (“not” a negative particle) te (fearful, nervous timid)
so all together an elegant translitteration without fear.

Brave greetings from Tokyo

A panel discussion on architecture at Charlie Rose

http://italian.cri.cn/

here some useful website if you want to start studying chinese:

http://www.mandarintools.com/ links to flash cards software and computer tools that are helpful when studying mandarin.
http://www.chinesecomputing.com/ this will solve problems of visualization
if you are Firefox user, these pop up translators are very useful.
For podcast check http://chinesepod.com

I just found out that WordPress blogs are still banned in China (and Turkey, Israel, thailand).
So probably I will have to move to an approved blog.

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.

There is one thing terribly irritating in Japan: the continuous waste of plastic bags.
Even when buying chewing gum I was offered a plastic bag.
Since yesterday China has banned free plastic bags in shops.
Whwn is it going to be in Japan and USA?

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.

Congo, Brazzaville, 2007.
The Savorgnan de Brazza high school is the most respected school in the Congolese capital but is in very bad need of repair. Jean de Dieu Malanga, professor of Chinese, is giving the students of the second year their annual examination. He himself has studied in China during the 80’s and makes a living as a translator for the Chinese bosses at the numerous construction sites besides his work as a teacher.

An article about chinese expansion in Congo.

Today I booked the tickets for europpa
25 june    tokyo-helsinki
6 july      helsinki-milano
20 aug    milan-beijing

but I also found this two pictures of what was my home for 5 months when i was an intern at Ateliaer Van Lieshout: the favela unit, which was also exhibited at the sao paolo biennale

“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

japanese is a situational language.
Since 3 months the office settings changed.
From the situation in the right to the left one. At the beginning, when the new staff arrived i became “senpai” (older member) so they started speaking polite japanese which it is still a mistery.

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.

While waiting at the counter of Mitsubishi bank two images of Japan became extremely clear:
there is a Japan that uses subtraction as a main technique of composition. It erases, cancels, reduces, makes dense. That acts in one movement. That cuts with one hit. Think about traditional arts.
Then there a Japan that uses addition: addition of Alphabets (kanji+romaji+hiragana+katakana), of information ( as in any busy metro station), of functions. That takes decision after endless meeting, that overlaps streets…

The man is Jiang Guohua, the communist party leader of Mianzhu. He is begging to ask the people to stop protesting.

I saw this image from a Herald Tribute article, wha impressed me was the fact that a political man was asking in that way. A man of power which could have just sent some police man ( will he do it later?) is begging normal people. Probably very few things are stronger than an angry mother. Probably thay feel guilty because many public building did not resist. Architecture failed to fullfill its prime function:protection.

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.

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

A brilliant documentation on Zollverein school by Thomas Mayer.
Check the rest of the website too

After getting the re-entry permit I am all legal to go to Beijing on saturday.
Five days, three interviews…
Hopefully a report will come after.
Here are the studios:

MAD Ltd

Approach Architecture

and
Archiland

______________
In beijing I couldreach to other studio and fix job interview:

http://www.studiopeizhu.com/

and standardarchitecture

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

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?

An interesting article about comparison of Mumbai and Tokyo

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.

more

“Leonard Zelig (played by Woody Allen), is a man who has the ability to change his appearance to that of the people who surround him. For example, if he is among doctors, he transforms into a doctor; if he is around overweight people, he quickly becomes heavy himself. Zelig is called the “human chameleon“.
(wikipedia)

The uniqueness of Mr. Zelig lays in observing,understanding and imitating the surrounding.
Contextual, respectful and smart, Zelig has a lot to  teach to today  Star Architects  who think they are able to  design  without knowing  context.

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

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:

Uno scroscio di applausi chiude l’emozionata presentazione di Daniel Libeskind in Triennale: il suo nuovo museo di arte contemporanea di Milano sarà la calamita del nuovo quartiere residenziale “motore dello sviluppo economico” che sostituirà lo storico polo fieristico della capitale morale.

Non è più tollerabile una politica architettonica e urbanistica basata sul fatto compiuto e comunque è difficile credere che possa fare da “polo di attrazione”, per attirare migliaia di visitatori, un volume tozzo la cui unica attrattiva da una base quadrata, genera un’immane terrazza tonda; piazzato come un triste mausoleo al centro di una cittadella chiusa da un muraglione di condomini, alto quasi 100 metri, su cui svettano le torri ingobbite di Hadid e Isozaki. Vengono alla mente le parole di Herbert Muschamp, compianto critico d’architettura del New York Times, fustigatore della gratuità di certa architettura contemporanea, che a proposito dell’obelisco Libeskind ficcato su Ground Zero scrisse: “Sorprendentemente privo di gusto, emotivamente manipolatorio, prossimo alla nostalgia e al kitsch”. DOMUS

Finally an article rising some interesting question about the SANAA’s NY museum.

Thank to Kirsten for this!

Il Tibet, questo semi sconosciuto, oramai appare su tutti i giornali, tv e siti web. La complessa question tibetana viene solitamente riaasunta in “Cina=cattivi, Tibet=buoni”.
Sorvolando sulla strana idea per cui noi paesi occidentali ci sentiamo il tribunale del mondo e quindi abbiamo il dovere di intervenire in ogni questione (purchè ci sia un interesse a nostro vantaggio) a qualsiasi latitudine e longitudine;  consiglio di leggere un interessante articolo  apparso sul blog  del Corriere La nostra Cina.

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

Japan is one of the few countries that still have a culture about public bath.
Yesterday with Takeshi and Yukko I went to one a bit out of central Tokyo which was much bigger than the

usual “Street Fighter Honda stage”. What is interesting to see is that japanese get really well cleaned before getting into the hot water.
After the sento if you are a real macho you should drink some milk and then relax in the dining area.
In tsunashima there is even a karaoke with old people singing and dancing.

So Takeshi and I decided to have bday dinner at the sento next week.

In the last days I have been researching about South Korea.
Here a very interesting online newspaper written in majority by citizens

Here is what I found outside the house yesterday.

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