Critical Mass Posts

As usual, a moment before a final presentation is the most interesting time to stop by at our studio space where the production of work takes over the process of thinking and wondering. At the same time, the place of production starts to spill out from the studio into other parts of the school. A creative act is a messy process, and we can certainly witness in these pictures!

In front of our Department of Architecture building at Hongo Campus in Tokyo, there is a bronze statue with his name, J. Conder. Like many statues located throughout the campus, there is no description as to who he was or what he did. A quick search on Wikipedia describes him as the first professor of architecture at the Imperial College of Engineering in Tokyo (now University of Tokyo) appointed in 1877 and father of Japanese modern architecture. Here is an excerpt from Wiki:

Josiah Conder (September 28, 1852 – June 21, 1920) was a British architect who worked as a foreign advisor to the government of Meiji period Japan. He designed numerous public buildings in Tokyo, including the Rokumeikan, and educated many Japanese architects who later won distinction (notably Tatsuno Kingo and Katayama Tōkuma), and hence Japanese called him the “father of Japanese modern architecture”.

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Conder_(architect)

Here are images of 1st year G30 Obuchi Lab Workshop in progress. Design teams are continuing to develop their generative mass production processes.

Yusuke Obuchi and G30 Obuchi Lab’s software teaching staff participated in Algorithmic Design International Symposium at Architectural Institute of Japan in Tokyo. The symposium hosted a series of impressive keynote lectures by Jesse Reiser from New York, Makoto Sei Watanabe from Tokyo, Kostas Terzidis from Boston, Marcos Novak from Santa Barbara, Tom Verebes from Hong Kong, and Mike Xie from Melbourne. Hanif Kara and Michael Weinstock from London also joined the keynote lectures via an online presentation. There was also a panel discussion on Algorithmic Design in Architectural Education chaired by Prof. Obuchi, and it was joined by Ludger Hovestadt of ETH Zurich and Toru Hasegawa of Columbia University.
A series of pavilions were displayed during the symposium at the front entrance of Architectural Institute of Japan. The pavilions were originally constructed as part of AAST Workshop Tokyo 2011. Obuchi Lab’s teaching staff (Daisuke & Junichiro) and students (Olesia & Deli) played an instrumental role in designing and fabricating the pavilions.

Joined by Jesse Reiser from Princeton University, Tom Verebes from Hong Kong University and Michael Hansmeyer from ETH Zurich, we packed the lecture hall, and had a series of presentations and discussions on the present state of architectural practice, research and education.

Many thanks to G30 Obuchi Lab students and Kengo Kuma Lab staff for helping organize the event.

As we increase our fabrication lab’s operational capacity, we decided to give ourselves a new look in the school!
Thanks, Toshi, Ana, Mickey and Yasemin.

G30 1st year design teams are currently exploring generative mass production processes based on evolutionary development logic. Two concepts of form-finding and form-generating are simultaneously developed using a wide range of material systems.