While working on the outdoor plaza to the KAIT workshop of Kanagawa Institute of Technology (completed in winter of 2008) Junya Ishigami + Associates considered two main characteristics: Versatility and the Semi-outdoor, and what these two would really represent within the project development.

The Versatility of the plaza was in this case considered from an experiential point of view instead of a practical one. Since the campus already had multifunctional spaces, with a lack of relaxation area, the users would benefit from a unique space suggesting a more ambiguous program. Therefore, instead of moving with a specific function in mind, the architect concentrated on the versatile experience of the space with an exploration on the ways to spend time there. “The process of passing time becomes the subject”.

The idea of a Semi-outdoor space arose as an in-between design solution, since the campus’s existing and unchanged built landscape was problematic. The latter evidently lacked a natural diversity and provided an artificial setting (school buildings). That is why the architect thought about retaining only half of the existing environment while subliming the other half with architectural elements. Given that the design is focused on the experience, the intervention was meant as a new “outside-ness”. This was achieved through specific architectural design techniques meant to create this new composed space.

Landscape can be experienced differently by people, whether physically or mentally. The environment of the plaza was meant to be “delicate and without a sense of restraint from the existing buildings”. The created landscape is meant for users to enjoy the scenery and spend a prolonged time looking into expanding planes of ground and sky meeting at the end of the grand curved surface and leading the view towards the boundless world on the other side of the horizon. Following the first considerations of the initial scenery and the treatment it would receive, the architects had decided to build over the entirety of the site. The 2 meter height difference between the campus ground level and project plane was then exploited to create a new ground space which is integrated with the natural ground. Afterwards, the main structure was conceived as a floating iron plane supported only by the four walls and bending into a curved surface with the lack of interior support. The ground was also made concave to echo the ceiling’s bend. Both planes bend and stretch, meeting at the end and creating the horizon inside the building.

La entrada Plaza of Kanagawa Institute of Technology se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

The project is a residence/restaurant for a French restaurant owner. He is an old friend of mine, and he was the one who commissioned the Tables for a Restaurant. I was asked to design a building as “heavy” as possible. “I want an architecture whose heaviness would increase with time,” he said. “It cannot be artificially smooth but rather something with the roughness of nature. Authentic cuisines require such a place.” He also told me that “it has to look as if it has been there and will continue to be there for the longest time.” His idea was to create a brand-new long-established restaurant. He was longing for something that is both a house and a restaurant, something he could pass on to his children and grandchildren. Now, he invites guests to the restaurant as he would invite friends to his house, and with someone special, he would let them into the living room or even stay overnight. When the restaurant is closed, the hall serves as a place for the family to spend time or for the children to study. The plan is arranged with the restaurant on the north and the residence on the south. To go back and forth between the spaces, they can walk through any one of the three courtyards that separate them.

In terms of construction, we conceived a process of constantly sharing, accepting, and referencing the un-precisions and accidents that occurred on the site to create an architecture that internalizes natural distortions and uncertainties. More specifically, we dug a hole in the ground to pour concrete, excavated the volume, and fixed glasses to create interior space.

La entrada House and restaurant se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

Junya Ishigami says about his interest in architecture: “A quality of nature is that it is governed by certain rules which at the same time we’re never really aware of… I am interested in creating something that would merge into this normally that surrounds us.”

The KAIT Workshop at Kanagawa Institute of Technology, a private university near Tokyo is the first project in which Ishigami succeeds in expanding the idea of blurring spaces. This project has become an ambiguous space, which no longer has any visible identifiable boundaries.

“I was beginning to think there could be a flexibility that results when the plans or other different factors remain in effect, from simply softening and blurring their boundaries. Through this thinking my interest shifted. I became interested in finding a way to design space somehow free of geometry or any rules. I imagined this could lead to a new universality in space.” – Junya Ishigami

Text description provided by the architects.

La entrada KAIT Workshop se publicó primero en Global Spaces.