hi all long time no see,,,,,,,,,,,,,i'm alive,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

on may this year,i went to new york for half a month with my lab for a research trip&studio review with princeton(reiser studio)/colombia(nanako studio).

after that till july,developments for studio project.mine is a speculative project that is about growing architecture(tasks this semester are project contextualization&prototype debugging).

and then on august,no summer vacation.working on two projects parallelly. one is aast workshop:an algorithmic wooden design for emergent shelter in 1:1 scale;another one is in progress,a pavillion,real construction project in shinjuku.

i ll post images about those things later,,,,,,,,,,,,

now this entry is about a lecture from rem,,,,,,,,two days ago,,,,,,,about metabolism,,,,,,,,,,,

when i was in college,maybe 1st semester at zone 2 of hit,i read a book about "The Metabolists",a manifesto of japan designers,which aimed to deploy biological systems as inspiration for architecture and urbanism that could adapt to ever-changing modern life.

it sounds not that cool right now as so many these kinds of thinking and academic practices have emerged all over the world since recent years the border of architecture and media art/movie is dissolved.

but the background of this architectural wave in japan is reconstruction of cities like hiroshima and tokyo after WWII.

it was 1960s.

this year,a severe earthquake of magnitude 9 happened to northeast areas of japan.
tens of thousands people are homeless.

after this mega quake,designers of japan again,are walking together to plan new home after disaster.it is kind of a special way for japan cities' development:"from ruin to rebirth."for metabolism,several exhibitions are on the show related to it in tokyo right now. it seems that "The Metabolists" start to be active again. even rem koolhaas,one of my favourite architect, has involved in this;his new book called:"Project Japan: An Oral History Of Metabolism"has been released right now.it is said that in this new book,a lot of never-seen pics/models/interviews will be published.the ambition of this book argues lots of terms in today's architectural issues like monumentality/sustainability and necessity for architecture to embrace the future.and his point here,at this time is that:the book is a vivid documentary of the last avant-garde movement and the last moment that architecture was a public rather than a private affair...

on 17.sep's afternoon,rem koolhaas gave a lecture at department of architecture,university of tokyo with toyo ito,and many others,to talk about this new book,the old term.

so,what did "The Metabolists" exactly do to re-build/re-new/re-development of japan cities in history?
what will it do for now?what's the role of it in japan mega cities's development?is metabolism the same term as 1960s?in 21st century,with driving forces like computational space/material computation;can metabolism be extended?does rem consider his new book as a summury or historical book for metabolism?

obvious questions,aren't they?
actually after lecture,i asked him several questions above.

i ll show you full answers from him later from my friend's recording file.

anyway,i think sometimes designers always think hard,very hard,are trying to lead the way of living without considering the existing human techniques and materiality,which techniques might be invented,achieved or at least can be researched/argued after proposal,even for the design tool.and we prettify this avant-garde,dont we? there is always a gap between proposal and material in real world.but one thing is important here,that is design with context.my tutor yusuke said once in studio:"dont design for mars."










also peter cook's student(left) whose Phd thesis at tokyo university is about cedric price.

on 3`11,in the obuchi lab studio of tokyo university,i was preparing the midterm review documents with team members and other students for 14th of the same month,when we were listening to the music while drawing and writing,also talking with eachother.what a normal and relaxing atmosphere.at the... View full entry

we are organising a launch party for our new digital fabrication lab at our department. although the facility is yet to be completed, we are hoping to celebrate this occasion with internationally distinguish architects, engineers and educators and to create a modest symposium/roundtable... View full entry

on 31st. jan, we ve had the final review that was joined by Yusuke Obuchiobuchi lab_univ.of tokyo, Makoto Sei Watanabe Makoto Sei Watanabe architect, Martina Schaefer(AA London), Andrew Li(Chinese University of Hong Kong) and Keisuke Toyodanoiz architect,daisuke hirosearchicomplex of the tokyo... View full entry

*note:this entry is not about the global warming!!! during tokyo university's 15-day holiday,i experienced the warmest winter i ve ever had(it's true~my previous university's city harbin is pretty cold,which temperature in winter is normally around -30 centi degree )...it's not only because of the... View full entry

"Theorized and then performed by pioneering musicians like Steve Reich in the 1960s or Brian Eno in the 1970s, minimalist or ambient music provides an important example or case study in the birth of today’s highly immersive, adaptive, environments. Works by these musicians and others... View full entry

i didn't exactly know what the date it is,i mean,some day in obuchi lab's studio,trudy and i have talked about peter,about his works also,his design thinking...u know,trudy is his student while she was master at ucl many years ago...and later,suddenly,an email told me that sir peter will come to... View full entry

all about my obuchi lab's life @ dept.architecture_univ. of tokyo good...the tokyo station project started in an extraordinary way because before its intro we have had more than 5 days' break after last project's final review.i suppose that is a good signal which indicated us professor realized... View full entry