
LANDSCAPE GOES DOMESTIC
October 9 (Sat) - 23 (Sat), 2021
Artists
ULTRA STUDIO
Being active in a time and region in which it that was difficult to engage architecturally in the city, Radical Architects of Italy in the 1960s intervened in the enormous landscapes through minuscule interior elements and produced a critical body of images with this inverting strategy.
The cartesian grids that covered the landscapes were depicted through a sequence of furniture-scale objects, but were simultaneously scaleless entities that could be expanded and contracted into interior objects. Them together created an unmediated connection between domestic and science fiction like visions.
Today, half a century later, cities are not covered with the homogeneous spaces as the radicals envisioned. In the first place, large-scale urban interventions in the city themselves seem to have been abandoned, and the architects' visions seem to be constrained to singular architectural projects and its surroundings. We decided to focus on this clash between "interior" and "landscape", and furthermore, to explore design methods through urban intervention by inverting their strategies: tiny interiors are found in extensive landscapes.
The modernist thesis "form follows function” and the concept of “universal space”, a space that responds to varieties of functions, the fusion of the two has produced a generic group of buildings. However, once we exit the buildings and take a glance at the city, we will find that the rational correspondence between form and function is nothing but a myth.
On a map of a city, we superimposed a grid. At each intersection, we dropped a star column, and observed the collision with various elements of the city. From this, we unearthed mundane forms scattered throughout the city as architectural "symbols".
By inhabiting within (=domesticating) them, we have given "functions" to the "symbols" a posteriori, and have drawn a new image of the city created by the "cluster of symbols”.
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Artists
ULTRA STUDIO
The architectural office consists of Yuji Mukaiyama, Alyssa Ueno, and Yushi Sasada. Formed in 2013, they have gained experience in Japan and Europe, and started their practice in 2018 based in Tokyo. The office is working to create architectural interventions while critically rethinking the urban culture.
Yuji Mukaiyama
1985 Born in Hiroshima, Japan
2008 Graduated from Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
2008 Junior architect at kwas / kensuke watanabe architecture studio
2011 Exchange Program in Department of Architecture, ETH Zürich
2012 Internship at Christian Kerez
2013 Graduated from Department of Architecture, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
2013 Architect at kwas / kensuke watanabe architecture studio
2015 Architect at DORELL.GHOTMEH.TANE / ARCHITECTS
2021 Part time lecturer at Department of Architecture, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
Alyssa Ueno
1986 Born in Tokyo, Japan
2010 Graduated from Department of Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths, University of London
2013 Completed Part 1 studies at Architectural Association School of Architecture (RIBA Part 1)
2013 Architectural assistant at Foster and Partners
2018 Graduated from School of Architecture, Royal College of Art (RIBA Part 2)
Yushi Sasada
1987 Born in Fukuoka, Japan
2011 Graduated from Department of environmental design, School of design, Kyushu University
2012 Exchange Program in Department of Architecture, ETH Zürich
2013 Internship at Pascal Flammer Architect
2014 Graduated from Socio-Cultural Environmental Studies, Graduate School of Frontier sciences, The University of Tokyo
2014 Architect at Jun Aoki & Associates
2021 Research associate at Tokyo University of the Arts Jun Aoki Lab
Dates
October 9 (Sat) - 23 (Sat), 2021
Opening Hours
11:00 - 19:00
Closing on
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Venue
The 5th Floor: Hanazono Alley 5F 3-3-9 IkenohataTaito-ku Tokyo
Access
4 minutes walk from Exit 2 of Nezu Station (Chiyoda line)
Entrance fee
¥500
※Students are Free
Organization
The 5th Floor, HB.
Coporation
Ohgi Engineering shop, Saitoh Lighting Corporation(Metalworking)
Public information design
Mariko Okazaki
Enquiries
The 5th Floor: info@the5thfloor.org
ULTRA STUDIO: info@ultrastudio.jp