Embassy of Japan in the UK

Highlights

IE HOME

Architecture at the Embassy of Japan

(From Left to Right) Masaki Kakizoe, Vicky Richardson, Sou Fujimoto

On 15 June, the Embassy of Japan celebrated its participation in this year's London Festival of Architecture, with a private view of the Embassy's exhibition, IEHOME, and a lecture by celebrated Japanese architect, Sou Fujimoto. This was introduced to a packed audience by Vicky Richardson, Director, Architecture-Design-Fashion at the British Council. Under the title of 'Primitive Future', Sou Fujimoto discussed his distinctive take on house design looking at his current installation at the Victoria and Albert Museum's '1:1 - Architects Make Small Spaces' exhibition.

In his talk, Mr Fujimoto explained, using images of his work, that we have to look beyond 20th-century architecture where functionality is already defined , to the architecture of the 21st century. The key to which may be an architecture where function is yet to be found by the occupier, as with a 'cave' in comprison to a 'nest'. In reply to a question from the audience, he admitted that as a Japanese person living in Tokyo, he has been influenced by his surroundings but he is in pursuit of a richness and wonder that can be shared commonly among people in different cultures.

Here, Vicky Richardson looks in detail at the IEHOME Exhibition

In Japanese the term 'home' or 'ie' is signified by a Chinese character, and is made up of a roof combined with a pig. It reminds us that home is a flexible and historically specific term - in this case it signified a building shared with animals.

The Japanese language does not translate directly into English, and the meanings of its characters are often more specific that words in English. By using architecture however, the participants in this exhibition aimed to convey the term in more subtle ways than language.

Five young Japanese architects all living and working in London, chose a site and designed a home, setting their own brief and creating their own imaginary client. Working in the evenings and at weekends (all have day-jobs working for established firms such as Stanton Williams and Sheppard Robson) they produced a series of beautifully detailed models and drawings to explain their ideas.

Akira Kindo sited his house on the top of Primrose Hill so that it could benefit from maximum exposure to the light. In Japan the edges of a house are often ambiguous and public/private are not such clear concepts: hence Kindo's house is open to the public as a cafe during the day, and only at night is it closed.

(L to R) Hiroki Kakizoe, Tokuichiro Oba, Masaki Kakizoe, Michiko Sumi, Akira Kindo

Nest by Hiroki Kakizoe is a house for a family that lives and works at home. Located on Shoreditch High Street it occupies the site 18th century terraced house. Where a conventional English house would have a solid front wall of brick with openings, Kakizoe's house has a translucent facade etched with the pattern of the original. Inside privacy can be found in a series of floating nests, which accommodate functions such as sleeping and bathing.

Tokuichiro Oba was another to explore notions of public and private. His 'Small House inside a Ruin' provides a home for an artist located in the former Wiltshire Brewery in Bethnal Green. Sliding doors open up the walls so that a large studio space becomes a public gallery.

Masaki Kakizoe aimed to reconnect the city dweller with nature with a home entitled Ephemeral Gardens of Light. Located in south-east London, the house has a deep plan and is organised around a series of square courtyards which allow light to penetrate all the rooms. A roof garden above is covered with vegetation and reflects seasonal changes.

Michiko Sumi's proposal points to a key difference between life in Japan and Britain. Her house 'Connecting the Opposite Shore' takes the form of a bridge across the Grand Union canal in Camden Town and is a home for three generations of a family. In the UK, as Sumi points out, 'There is an unspoken consensus that is unreasonable for adult sons and daughters to live under the same roof as their parents'. She chose the canal as a metaphor for the physical and mental boundaries between relationships within an inter-generational home. This thoughtful and beautiful project takes discussion about housing into new territory that questions assumptions about how we live and our attitudes to caring for parents and grandparents.