exhibition of Japanese contemporary architecture
8 November 2006 – 8 January 2007, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest
The exhibition presented a particular way of relating to tradition, reflected by the current Japanese architecture. The continuity is not about the perpetuation of a “Japanese style”, but one could notice that Japanese architects are rather inclined to look for ideas, concepts, background at the bottom of traditional architecture, rather than typologies or models.
Certain common categories were defined for participants, highlighting 3 selection types:
1. First-class architecture, with a selection mainly relying on the complexity of programmes and the development of the public space: Jun Aoki, Tetsuo Furuichi, Waro Kishi, Kazuhiro Kojima, Kengo Kuma, Hiroshi Naito, Sanaa and Taira Nishizawa.
2. A second selection is rather focused on the housing, the small functions and the search for alternatives: Ryuichi Ashizawa, Sou Fujimoto, Masahiro & Mao Harada, Jun Igarashi, Kumiko Inui, Kazuyasu Kochi, Hironori Matsubara, Tetsuya Nakazono, Makoto Tanijiri and Kuniaki Takahashi.
3. Engineering structures – examples of mutations in the thinking of a construction, changes of thinking, beyond scale and programme: Kenji Nawa and Jun Sato.
Speaking visually and aesthetically only, the modern and traditional architecture seem completely separated, but the exhibition points out to the very way in which the poetic of the Japanese architecture moves in a different time, in a different cultural and technological paradigm, than that of the present.
Organizer: Zeppelin team. Main sponsors: Henkel Bautechnik, Dupont Romania. Sponsors: Knauf, Velux, Bramac, MonsMedius, Delta Design, Hunter Douglas, Steelcase România, Isover, Lafarge, Xerox, Fakro.
Event supported by: Bucharest Sector 1 City Hall, Ministry of Culture and Cults, Administration of National Cultural Heritage, National Museum of Contemporary Art, National Investments Company, Japan Embassy at Bucharest, Japan Foundation, Stage Expert
