Archinect - News

Junya Ishigami 'excavates' concrete cave for restaurant and residence in Japan

2022-09-23T13:56:00-04:00

Junya Ishigami + Associates has completed a residence and restaurant for a French restauranter in the city of Ube, Japan. Asked by the client for a space that "has to look as if it has been there and will continue to be there for the longest time," Ishigami responded with a cave-like structure punctured by three courtyards.

Photograph ©︎ YASHIRO PHOTO OFFICE

Photograph ©︎ junya.ishigami+associates

The scheme’s construction saw the site excavated to shape an inverse volume of the final design. Concrete was then poured in situ and the surrounding earth excavated further to reveal the final form. Finally, glazing was fixed to external threshold arches to form interior spaces.

Photograph ©︎ junya.ishigami+associates

Construction process diagram ©︎ junya.ishigami+associates

"When the structure was excavated after concrete solidification, it was caked with mud," Ishagimi recalls in a reflection for the Japanese magazine GA Houses translated by Fraze Craze. "With the range in geology, the natu...

Were Neanderthals the first architects?

2016-05-27T15:51:00-04:00

[...] the stalagmite rings were older than any known cave painting. It also meant that they couldn’t have been the work of Homo sapiens. Their builders must have been the only early humans in the south of France at the time: Neanderthals. The discovery suggested that Neanderthals were more sophisticated than anyone had given them credit for. They wielded fire, ventured deep underground, and shaped the subterranean rock into complex constructions.

IceCave Iceland is a city in the glacier

2015-01-05T14:25:00-05:00

There's an interesting construction/excavation project going on over in Iceland right now: an artificial tunnel and cave complex being dug into the Langjökull Glacier. When complete, the publicly accessible infra-glacial facility "will consist of numerous nooks and dens which will house exhibitions, information, restaurants and even a small chapel for those who would like to marry deep within an ice cap."