Archinect - News

Toshiko Mori on style

2022-03-25T18:29:00-04:00

My architectural hero is Lina Bo Bardi. She was an amazing person. She was connected to society, communities, and construction crews. And also the fact that she's originally Italian, and established an identity in a place different from her place of origin (Brazil), resonated for me coming from Japan and establishing my practice in the United States. Navigating that territory, not only being a woman, but being a migrant as well.

A very nuanced interview with Toshiko Mori. "The former Chair of Harvard's graduate architecture program deems signature style irrelevant, favoring a versatile research-based approach. Beyond the load bearing structures of a building, Mori's examination of material matter excavates the complexities and contradictions of modern human phenomena."

The 2021 Isamu Noguchi Award goes to artist Shio Kusaka and architect Toshiko Mori

2021-08-24T15:14:00-04:00

Each year, the Isamu Noguchi Award honors and recognizes the work of individuals who "embody global consciousness, design innovation, and emphasis on cultural exchanges between Eastern and Western cultures." This year's 2021 award will be presented to artist Shio Kusaka and architect Toshiko Mori.

Both women, born in Japan and practicing in the United States, have had illustrious careers where their work and contribution to art, design, and architecture positions them as leaders in their respective fields.

Artist Shio Kusaka

Ceramic work by Shio Kusaka. Image courtesy of Shio Kusaka (via @kusakashio)

A row of Shio Kusaka's ceramic animals on top of the built-in bookcase at the Richard Neutra-designed VDL House in Los Angeles. Image courtesy of Shio Kusaka (@kusakashio)

Born in Morioka, Japan, Kusaka received her BFA from the University of Washington, Seattle, and lives and works in Los Angeles. Her work focuses on innovative and gracefully playful approaches to the ceramic medium. ...

Architects envision post-pandemic domestic architecture through miniature paper houses

2021-03-17T17:28:00-04:00

It was with this in mind that T asked three architects — Vincent Van Duysen in Antwerp, Belgium, Toshiko Mori in New York and Massimiliano Locatelli of Locatelli Partners in Milan — to each design a paper house that could speak to their vision for a post-pandemic domestic architecture. Their models explore basic questions of how we might make homes for a world irrevocably changed.

Plans for the miniature post-pandemic paper houses designed by architects Toshiko Mori, Vincent Van Duysen, and Massimiliano Locatelli can be downloaded here.

Toshiko Mori is inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters

2020-03-02T17:33:00-05:00

Notable Japanese architect and academic Toshiko Mori has been inducted as a new member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters honor society. Consisting of writers, architects, artists, and composers, the Academy's members are chosen for their efforts to promote and sustain interests in music, fine arts, and literature.

Mori's list of accomplishments reflects her dedication to architectural academia and practice. She is the founder and principal of New York-based Toshiko Mori Architect, in addition to being Harvard GSD's first female tenured professor and first female chair for the department of architecture. Mori is currently the Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture at GSD.

Below is a list of this year's newly induced members:

Art:

Laurie Anderson
Carroll Dunham
Toshiko Mori
Julian Schnabel
Amy Sillman
Carrie Mae Weems

Literature:

Edwidge Danticat
Mary Gaitskill
Barry Lopez
Mona Simpson
Colson Whitehead

Music:

Terry Riley
Chinary Ung

To learn more about the honors ...

Cooper Union opens access to database of student work dating back to the 1930s

2019-12-03T09:30:00-05:00

The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union in New York City has unveiled The Student Work Collection, a new online resource that highlights nearly 80 years' worth of architectural output with the aim of recording the "School of Architecture's pedagogy by documenting student work."

The comprehensive archival project includes over 4,000 student projects that are catalogued by student and and instructor names, as well as by course number, semester, decade, and design problem, among other topics. The collection provides a deep view into the early pen-on-vellum work of now-famous architects like Daniel Libeskind (class of 1970), Liz Diller (class of 1979), and others. The archive also offers a more complex perspective of the educational efforts of prominent architectural educators and theorists, including John Hejduk, Peter Eisenman, Toshiko Mori, Lebbeus Woods, and others.

Homepage of The Student Work Collection. Image courtesy of Cooper Union.

According to the site...

“Be persistent and then be resilient”: Toshiko Mori looks back on her path to architecture

2018-05-17T14:15:00-04:00

Architecture is filled with stereotypes and status quos that are not productive, and in a world where we increasingly require a collaborative model of production and building, I often disrupt and reset the framework and mindset to have everyone focus on common goals and vision. I think one needs to speak up and one needs to be decisive and aggressive.

“I was confused and inspired. I wanted to do everything,” Toshiko Mori says in The Harvard Gazette. In this in-depth interview, Mori talks about growing up in post-war Japan, how she became interested in architecture, launching her firm in her 20s and making a name for herself, and her path to teaching at Harvard GSD, being the first woman to earn tenure and to chair the architecture department. She also shares her thoughts on the profession — like her design approaches, ongoing issues in the field, and the importance of resilience.

How to engage the past in architectural dialogue according to Toshiko Mori, featured in new Time-Space-Existence video

2018-05-10T15:28:00-04:00

Acclaimed Japanese-American architect and former chair of architecture at Harvard University GSD, Toshiko Mori has built a career on technical research, experimental design, and pedagogical practice. In the ninth video from the Time-Space-Existence series, produced by PLANE—SITE, Mori discusses the topics of time, space, and existence as they relate to her work.

Thread Arists' Residency. Photo by Iwan Baan.

Born in Japan in 1951, Mori emigrated to the United States as a teenager and went on to graduate from the Cooper Union School of Architecture in 1976, where she became a protégé of the school's dean John Hejduk. Afterwards, Mori began her career working with modernist architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, designer of the IBM Building at 57th Street and Madison Avenue.

Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. Photo by Iwan Baan.

Toshiko Mori's portfolio includes an impressive roster of projects such as a visitor center adjacent to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Darwin Martin House in Buffalo ...

Toshiko Mori designs pro-bono a new artists' residency in Senegal

2015-01-15T15:45:00-05:00

The rural village of Sinthian in southeastern Senegal is home to the THREAD arts center, a new artists' residency and cultural community space set to open this March. The idea for the arts center originated from the long-term efforts of doctor and local Sinthian leader, Magueye Ba, who spearheaded the project with environmental sustainability expert Moussa Sene and The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. The project has already gained deserved recognition with a selection for the 2014 Venice Biennale and an AIANY award.

Designed pro-bono by New York-based Toshiko Mori Architect, the art center's design incorporates local materials and building customs. While local masons and villagers provided their expertise on working with bamboo, brick, and thatch, Mori rendered those materials into a contemporary geometric design that complements its surrounding flat landscape. The structure's most notable feature is its inverted roof that can collect and retain rainwater to provide for 40% of the ...

A Visitor Center in the Bronx Where Edgar Allen Poe Heard a Knocking

2011-05-31T20:24:02-04:00

The new visitor center is the first park project to be completed as part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Design and Construction Excellence Initiative. By making it easier to get talented architects on the job, the program aims at bringing good design to even the humblest city-funded projects. The Poe Center was designed by Toshiko Mori, an award-winning architect and a former chairman of the department of architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

'Kinky' building by Toshiko Mori gets Bloomberg highlight

2011-04-20T17:23:21-04:00

The sculptural form is meant to advertise the center's building-innovation mission. The low, sloping volume encloses tall industrial space for experimentation, while the higher slab building houses labs that focus on a variety of evolving technologies, like indoor air quality.

Described as a building "advertising its construction- innovation mission with an angle here, a kink there," the recently opened $41,000,000 and 55,000-square-foot Syracuse Center of Excellence, an incubator dedicated to energy conservation, is a laboratory for sustainable building and energy technologies.

Ed Bogucz, the center’s executive director, took writer James S. Russell, writer of the soon-to-be-released book The Agile City, on a tour of the facility highlighting many of the technologies used in the building. From radient panels, automated blinds-between-panes and a fresh-and-filtered air system design to handle the next-door highway pollution, the green-roofed facility aims to demonstrate and test many of the technologies needed in the coming century. These practices, in turn, reduce the buildings energy use leading to smaller boilers and other infrastructural demands.

To learn more, visit "Syracuse Builds $41 Million Green Incubator: James S. Russell," Bloomberg and ...