Category Archives: Architecture

Toyo Ito is the 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate

Toyo Ito, a 71 year old architect whose architectural practice is based in Tokyo, Japan, will be the recipient of the 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize. It was announced today by Thomas J. Pritzker, chairman of The Hyatt Foundation which sponsors the prize. Ito is the sixth Japanese architect to become a Pritzker Laureate – the first five being the late Kenzo Tange in 1987, Fumihiko Maki in 1993, Tadao Ando in 1995, and the team of Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa in 2010.

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Aluminum-framed cafeteria by Masatomo Kojima

Tokyo based architect Masatomo Kojima created an aluminum-framed cafeteria called ROKU, where you can watch a boat racing event from the windows. It is a modular system and possible to move around each piece in order to match the size of interiors. The project was commissioned by the Japanese boat racing association. Photo©Kai Nakamura

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Shohei Shigematsu’s lecture at Harvard

Japanese architect Shohei Shigematsu held a lecture ‘Designing an Institute for Performance Art’ at Harvard.

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Kengo Kuma’s proposal images for Albert Kahn – Musée et Jardins

Kengo Kuma & Associates won the first prize for the competition “Albert Kahn – Musée et Jardins”. The museum, located in Boulogne-Billancour, just outside Paris, showcases gardens around the world including Japanese gardens. The renovation work will start in 2015. It is expected to be completed by 2017.

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Zaha Hadid to design New Stadium Japan

Japan Sport Council announced today that Zaha Hadid Architects has been selected to design New Stadium Japan. “The streamlined design expresses the speed and dynamism of sports, and it also takes an advantage of the great environment-related technologies available in Japan”, the chairman of the jury Tadao Ando says.

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New National Stadium Japan

Eleven potential designs for Japan’s new national stadium were made public. The eleven finalists include Japanese firms such as Azusa Sekkei Co Ltd, Toyo Ito & Associates, SANAA + Nikken Sekkei Ltd, and Mitsuru Man Senda and Environment Design Institute. The conditions of the competition, chaired by Tadao Ando, are the followings: 1) Design a stadium for 80,000 seats, 2) Have an operable roof, 3) Be environmentally efficient, 4) Complement the surrounding landscape, 4) Allow for smooth traffic, 5) Be up and ready by 2018 to host the Rugby World cup in 2019. The winners of the competition will be chosen on November 15th. For more information: http://www.jpnsport.com/en/

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Architecture for dogs

Japanese architect Kenya Hara, also known as the creative director of Muji, curated the project “Architecture for dogs”, and international architects and designers participated in it. The design templates will be available at architecturefordogs.com on November 15th, and dog owners can download them.

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After March 11th – Kengo Kuma

The great disaster of March 11, 2011 differed from any other catastrophe since the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake. In the age of advanced technology and “strong” buildings, the tsunami flattened Tohoku coastline in seconds. The nuclear accident that followed further revealed the vulnerability of “big and strong” architecture. In the face of radiation, materials such as concrete and steel were insufficient, even though nuclear energy had been a solution for our drive to be bigger, stronger, and more efficient. Now that this modernization process has collapsed on itself, we must start again from scratch. Kengo Kuma of Kengo Kuma and Associates, Tokyo, will discuss how architecture can respond to this epochal … Continue reading

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Akihisa Hirata: Tangling

Award winning architect Akihisa Hirata’s solo exhibition “Tangling” is now on at The Architecture Foundation in London (until November 17th). A social order which is premised on the independence of the individual and whose primary pursuit is the maximization of individual freedom must change in light of the simple reality that the individual is part of a ‘tangled order.’ And the same can probably also be said of rationality in architecture. – Akihisa Hirata

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Lecture by Toyo Ito at California College of the Arts

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