Author: T—ADS

A few days after the mega earthquake shook Japan, Columbia students from New York led by Nanako Umemoto of Reiser+Umemoto have visited Tokyo to join midterm review organized by Princeton, Columbia and University of Tokyo. They were visiting Kyoto taking part in their Japan Trip Program when the earthquake hit. The review was planned 6 months in advance and all students from those schools in the US and also from Tsingha University in Beijing ware planning to participate.

Cecil Balmond+Roland Snooks Studio from University of Pennsylvania was presenting their projects at our school when the mega earthquake hit Japan last week. No one was hurt and no major damage to the building by the quake.

Matthias Kohler, Chair of Architecture and Digital Fabrication at ETH Zurich, stopped by at Uni Tokyo to meet with Kengo Kuma and Yusuke Obuchi last week. He was on his way to Singapore where he and his partner Fabio Gramazio are setting up a new program at the National University of Singapore.

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 distinguished architects, engineers and educators and to create a modest symposium/roundtable discussion. Participants: Kengo Kuma, Jesse Resier, Nanako Umemoto, Hanif Kara, Michael Weinstock, Chiba Namabu, Yusuke Obuchi

Here are some physical models developed for the Tokyo Station’s arrival hall ceiling system.

We just finished our final studio review for the Tokyo Station Project. The review was joined by Makoto Sei Watanabe, Martina Schaefer, Andrew Li and Keisuke Toyoda.