Author, architect and materials expert Blaine Brownell recently published a book on his travels to twenty leading material and design innovators in Japan. The book includes interviews with Tadao Ando, Shigeru Ban, Kengo Kuma, Kazuyo Sejima, and others. Brownell took on this journey to discover the connections between materiality and transience in their work. For centuries the Japanese culture has treated materials with an uncommon reverence. Regarded as rich resources of inspiration, materials are consecrated when they are handled or altered according to their “internal voice”. Brownell sought to find how today’s daily inundation of new materials has affected this thoughtful approach. The discussion is carried out with text and stunning photographs that help illustrate his main points.
Table of Contents following the break.
Table of Contents:
6 Acknowledgments 8 When the World Floats: Material Buoyancy in Contemporary Design, Hiroshi Ota 11 Substance and Transience in Japanese Architecture and Design 19 Lightness 23 Expanding Boundaries, Takaharu Tezuka 35 The Presence of Absence, Kengo Kuma 45 Weightless Surfaces, Yasuhiro Yamashita 57 A Small “!” Moment, Oki Sato 69 Strength in Weakness, Shigeru Ban 83 Atmosphere 87 Information Architecture, Kenya Hara 99 Invisible Architecture, Kazuyo Sejima 111 Substance and Abstraction, Tadao Ando 121 A Canvas for Light, Eriko Horiki
133 Evoking the Primal, Terunobu Fujimori 145 Flow 149 Recording Materiality, Jun Aoki
161 Pattern and Movement, Hitoshi Abe 173 Connective Tissue, Shuhei Endo 183 The Fluidity of Fabric, Reiko Sudo
193 Liquid Architecture, Sachiko Kodama 201 Emergence 205 The Emerging Grid
217 Natural Logic, Makoto Sei Watanabe 229 Soft Interface, Akira Wakita 239 Summoning Nature, Tokujin Yoshioka 249 The Sound of Material, Masayo Ave 256 Image Credits
Pages: 256 Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press Language: English ISBN-10: 1568989962
