Discovering new values to open up the twenty-first century through the works of seven architectural practices active at the “GLOBAL ENDS”.

Creating an architecture that had an explicit relationship with the experience of being in the city was very important to me. The idea of the city, and the richness of city experience, always give the most important clue in terms of how I establish the spatial construction of a project.—David Adjaye

The beauty of “naked” structure and material, given life by the hands of contemporary craftsmen—here Yoshiji Takehara’s quest for the space of a “Naked Architecture” reveals itself.

Kengo Kuma is a continually-evolving architect. His avowed aim today is to create that which is organic. What does he mean by organic? Large models of two recent projects—Besançon City Arts and Culture Center and Granada Performing Arts Center—will be on desplay.

In the exhibition, we are scheduled to display many sketches from the sketchbook that Campo Baeza always carries with him, as the source of his ideas, and abundant photos of his completed works and works in progress within an installation making full use of “the light” that symbolizes his architecture.

The number 20 has a certain mystical quality. Ise Shrine is reconstructed every 20 years, and Tokyo itself is rebuilt on almost the same 20-year cycle. Fashions seem to come back into vogue every 20 years, and it is 20 years since Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham arrived in Japan, fresh from the Royal College of Art.—Astrid Klein, Mark Dytham

Architect Tadao Ando’s Exhibition. “Row House in Sumiyoshi” will be shown in a full-scale model.

Glenn Murcutt, a master in the contemporary architectural world. A broad introduction to a sustainable architecture responsive to the land of Australia.

In this exhibition, he has creates two tea ceremony rooms. One is made from “steel”, and amazingly, the other is made from “water”. He will be showing his unique design methods through these traditional Japanese minimal spaces.

Why am I based in China? It’s because I am able to make things. Not only are there many opportunities for work, the situation there is different from Japan.—Keiichiro Sako
Unchanging, unmoving, I want to make the kind of place that will always be the same whenever I go there. Having begun to work like this in China, I thought deeply about it.—Hironori Matsubara

In this exhibition, we would like to introduce three projects that we happened to get involved with, all of which are now underway. Each site has a completely different culture and climate. What they have in common is a “huge lot.” (Kazuhiro Kojima + Kazuko Akamatsu/CAt)

The exhibition will feature seven of his representative works, including his latest works, that have a differing “context” and “nature of work.” It will show Siza’s approach in the design of each work and introduce his universal and poetic space quality that is given shape in each work.

We want to make lively space. Together with the inhabitants, we want to put into practice lively space through the design of architecture. What kind of actors will support lively space? What kind of architectural imagination attracts leaders who will put into practice lively space?—Atelier Bow-Wow

I believe what I am doing is searching for a form unique to the site. The conditions are entirely different for each architectural project. The configuration of the site is different, and the nearby environment is different. The climate and vegetation of course are also different, as are the client and the program. I believe what I am doing is searching for a form that is effective only under the unique set of conditions.—Manabu Chiba

Teruaki Ohashi died just as he was reaching the peak of his powers. More than ten years have passed since then. Those who began to design furniture in the meantime may not be familiar with his achievements. His professional journey, which was lengthy despite his untimely death and characterized by both great delicacy and boldness, are full of hints and lessons for us.—Koji Taki

Luminosity/Porosity investigates aspects of porosity and light, the fusion of architecture, urbanism and landscape and ultimately the fusion of matter and spirit.—Steven Hall

Architecture is a device for triggering behavior in individuals and society. To create buildings that are easy to understand, comfortable and capable of suggesting new values may be the responsibility of any architect, but we have chosen to make that our explicit goal in our practice.—Takaharu and Yui Tezuka

To mark its 20th anniversary, GALLERY·MA is holding an exhibition and lectures and issuing an accompanying commemorative publication. The house has long been regarded as the origin of architecture.

In this exhibition, I hope that by bringing together “tools” born out of such feelings and re-editing them, I will be able to communicate to viewers the relationships surrounding the tools. The title of the exhibition, “KuRaSiGoTo”, is a portmanteau word made from kurashi (life), shigoto (work) and koto (circumstance)—three elements of everyday life. I think of it as suggesting both the cumulative effect of the work I have done designing tools for everyday life and the direction of my future activities.—Makoto Koizumi

The shape design techniques I am advocating are the Sensitivity Analysis method and the Evolutionary Structure Optimization method. These involve generating rational structural shapes within a computer by using the principles of evolution and self-organization of living creatures from an engineering standpoint. I am currently experimenting with the initial applications of these methods to create new architectural structures. One example of their practical application is in Free-curved Surface Structures, and another is in Flux Structures.—Mutsuro Sasaki

The essential forms (wall/surface typologies) of six projects have here been sliced into fragments. Detached from program, texture, scale, and environment, these fragments of architecture have been arrayed to generate a new space for visitors. This exhibiton is not confined to simulation and representation, but is a place for direct dialogue between body and form.—Hitoshi Abe

In the end of the year 2003, the was built in Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay, South America. It was then opened and displayed for many people living in the city. This has two meanings. Firstly, it is a house, which the dwellers can build by themselves. This is a small message for the overflowing people in the city without a place to live, which is happening all round the world. Secondly, this challenge envisions the .—Hiroshi Hara

GALLERY·MA is presenting an exhibition by Angelo Mangiarotti, a Milan-based architect who has been engaged in wide-ranging creative activity in the fields of architecture, design, and sculpture for about half a century. Please take this opportunity to enjoy the modern creativity of Italy, the kingdom of design, through the large number of works brought from Mangiarotti’s studio in Milan, actual-size models made by the precast method, an interview video, and other materials.

As an architect working in a place that repeatedly constructed and destroyed buildings to the very end of the twentieth century, I decided to compile in a single volume and to exhibit ideas that would not have emerged had I not been engaged in actual practice.—Taira Nishizawa

The traditionally distinctive architectural worlds in this region, with more than two thousand years of history, are finally coming together as one. What connects Seung H-Sang from Seoul and Yung Ho Chang from Beijing is the fact that each represents most actively this emerging common East Asian architectural sphere. These two architects, who are marked by a mobile stance and individual talents that go beyond national boundaries, as well as by the long history of their respective architectural cultures flowing through their bodies, met in Osaka, collaborated in Beijing and Seoul, and now meet here again in Tokyo.—Shin Muramatsu

I believe that face-to-face encounters between those who create works of architecture and all those who have anything to do with those works have been necessary in all ages to forge close ties between architecture on the one hand and people and society on the other. I hope to those beliefs, even as I reflect on, and feel some small measure of satisfaction with respect to, the works presented in this volume.—Teiichi Takahashi

The goal of MUJI has continued to be the provision of basic, universal products for everyday life. There has been no change in its philosophy, which is rooted in the aesthetic of Japanese life and places value on fundamentals. In 2003 MUJI began to take that idea overseas. This exhibition is both a confirmation of MUJI’s commitment to its basic philosophy and a presentation of its new vision.

SANAA’s entire body of work since it began its activites in 1995 will be published in one book; new projects currently underway will be introduced in an exhibition.

When you try to create a building, you begin to see things. For example, the people who will use or manage the building, the local residents and the character of the locality. Those things are by no means obvious to you from the start. You do not know in advance what the people and the place for which you are trying to create a building are like. Those things become apparent to you only through the relationship they may have to the building. I think that is generally the case.—Riken Yamamoto

Melnikov’s representative works were built in an era after the socialist revolution when forms overturning established architectural principles were being created at an unprecedented rate in the Soviet Union. However, he was far in advance of the trend of the period, formally and conceptually. His works were always innovative and original.—Rishat Mullagildin

GALLERY·MA created a place where architects of different generations, from those in their 30s to those in their 70s, could come together and think about the architecture of tomorrow. Trends develop so rapidly today that there is little time or opportunity for members of different generations to share their views; this was an attempt to reexamine our awareness of the issues within a larger framework.

Architecture is of value to me as a framework through which to consider the world. The construction of architecture provides an opportunity to observe society, encounter people and understand nature. In addition to presenting scattered fragmenary notes collected from various sources, I hope to indicate here a process for generating architecture.—Nobuaki Furuya

A work of architecture is a point of singularity in the sea of circumstances prevailing today. A different interpretation of the situation can lead to the conception of a new relationship between human beings and space in that small point of singularity called architecture. A series of points of singularity may even be able to alter our perception of a situation that seems unalterable.—Koh Kitayama

I have come to think that my desire is to free the space of architecture from several frames. It’s also that I have come to seek a space of freedom that has not yet been seen. This type of space will release our bodies and spirits from various binds, and make possible its own communication to the world. This space, however, is not within a special place or a special time. I have come to believe it is a place within the continuation of ordinary time.—Kazunari Sakamoto

The word “box” usually conjures images of closure. However, to me a box is a primary place grown out from a space where there was nothing. To make space into a building, we must utilize some kind of substance to construct a box. To turn box into a place, the number of substances should be kept to a minimum, and what substances there are should be used effectively. My series of the Box-Houses began as an attempt to achieve that objective.—Kazuhiko Namba

This project examines Le Corbusier through his houses. Widely recognized as the greatest architect of the twentieth century, Le Corbusier engaged in a broad range of creative activities—city planning, achitecture, painting, sculpture, writing and editing—but had an abiding interest in houses. The exhibition is an attempt to get as close as possible to the real Le Corbusier as opposed to the main about whom so much has already been said and written.—Team Ⅲ

One day, I realized that throughout the world unbuilt projects have become the sole subject of discussion among architectural historians. Paradoxically, unbuilt projects—projects that are unbuilt, that are never expected to be built, that are not intended to be built or that in no way can be built—have come to consitute architectural history.—Arata Isozaki