Archinect - The University of Tokyo (Christopher)

The Metabolist Routine

2013-05-30T12:47:37-04:00

こんばんは Archinect,

I'm up late working on a studio final, but thought I'd share a great article written by a former classmate of mine, Ana Luisa Soares and her partner Filipe Magalhães, about living in Kisho Kurokawa's Nakagin Capsule Tower.

Enjoy!

http://www.domusweb.it/content/domusweb/en/architecture/2013/05/29/the_metabolist_routine.html

Holy Toledo! Long time no post.

2013-05-20T09:45:37-04:00

I should apologize. I know there are those of you out there who enjoy these blogs and perhaps some, like me, who will depend on them for making decisions regarding your future education plans. So, I’m sorry. This is why I know I’m going to be an architect and not a journalist, but I will try harder to make these posts a bit more regular.

Rather than one up The Odyssey by describing my past six months here in Tokyo, I figured I would just included some captioned photos of some of the results of our efforts in the G30 and then begin more timely reporting (I pray to GOD) from here on out. Enjoy!

Christopher

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Simulation of inflatable units via Rhino and Grasshopper with Kangaroo Plugin

Advancing our assembly strategy, seeking to find a method offering a strong connection with no breaking of exterior membrane.

The size of connection plates controls the amount of plastic locally gathered a...

Workshop One

2012-12-02T13:01:00-05:00

With the the CirclePack pavilion ending mid November, my fellow first year students and I set about completing our individual projects for our Workshop One presentation, held on November 22nd (Turkey Day). As we don’t have any traditional studio classes until spring semester, this fall semester has been divided into a series of workshops aimed at developing our design research skills, while bringing everyone up to speed on the various software we will be using later in the program. The goal of Workshop One was to develop a canopy system based on the principles of nonlinear tensegrity pioneered by Buckminster Fuller, Frei Otto and Kenneth Snelson. The focus however wasn’t on the product, so much as the development of a system or design strategy - a “design tool” as Obuchi sensei prefers to call it - which allows a variety of different formal results to be derived from small manipulations to a basic material logic.

While we all took different meaning from these precedents, some ho...

Circle Packing

2012-11-12T10:21:00-05:00

Six weeks into the G30 program, I can report that I’m starting to settle back into the studio groove (ie the last train home at 12:17). My classmates, eight of us hailing from China, Mexico, Portugal, Macedonia, S Korea, Spain and myself from the US, are all in the process of adapting to the Japanese lab environment. What’s perhaps unique for all of us is that, unlike a studio semester based curriculum of traditional architectural masters programs, our studies are conducted almost exclusively within our lab setting. Aside from two guest lecture courses, Architecture and Cities in Japan; and Urban Regeneration - both of which are veritable grab bags regarding the topic du jour and their pertinence to the course titles - our focus is predominately on expanding the field of research of cybernetic urbanism championed by the lab’s professor Yusuke Obuchi (I’ll define cybernetic urbanism later when I understand it myself, but for now perhaps you can look into some of the past work ...

Feet on the ground.

2012-10-07T00:34:00-04:00

Since arriving in Tokyo Tuesday night, things have been going smoothly and I already feel quite comfortable here. I was lucky enough to gain acceptance to university subsidized housing in a facility know as UT Shirokanedai International Lodge. As the name suggests, it’s housing for international students. This aspect of the facility isn’t exactly what I would have preferred since I’m trying to get my Japanese language ability to at least a basic functioning level, but at $75 a month rent I’m not complaining. A similar sized 18m2 apartment would probably run closer to 800-1000 a month. The neighborhood is quite nice and roughly a 45min door-to-door commute by subway to my lab at the University of Tokyo Hongo Campus.

Starting Wednesday, I began meeting with my program tutor Ryo, a student in neighboring Manabu Chiba’s lab, who assisted me with my university registration, municipal registration, health insurance application, student commuting discount, application fee deferment...

Westward...

2012-10-01T15:27:17-04:00

When I opened this blog a few weeks ago, I planned on writing my first post before leaving the US. So, in true architecture student fashion, I figured what better time to post than sitting at LAX waiting for my departure to Tokyo.

Some things you should know about me that may be pertinent to this blog:

1. I grew up in Hudson, Wisconsin not far from Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota.

2. I graduated in 2010 from Montana State University with a BA of Environmental Design.

3. I spent the last two years as a graphic intern at Mithun in Seattle, WA.

4. I love to travel.

The fourth item is particularly important because it is the basis for my decision to turn down offers at M-Arch programs in the US, in favor of pursuing graduate study in at the University of Tokyo’s G30 Lab in Japan. I’ll get into the particulars in later posts, but for now I welcome you to this blog, and request that you feel free to leave comments and questions about the program and Japan. If it weren’...