Another Nature

We are endeavouring to contemplate two fundamental aspects of architecture: comfort and constructivity.

New comfort

Until recently, architecture was created to segregate man from nature, as shelter, and a “comfortable” environment was created artificially within. Today, the distinction between the natural environment and the manmade environment is becoming ambiguous, and new environments are emerging. For these new environments, a new theory of architecture is needed, one that exceeds the shelter concept. By this new theory of architecture, I think it is very important and necessary to think about how people can find comfort and how we can define a “new comfort” in architecture.

New constructivity

Conceiving ways to build structures has been one of the critical tasks of architecture from time immemorial. We believe exploring “new approaches to construction” in architecture that transcend and overturn conventional concepts completely can be a means of expanding the possibilities of architecture. For the generation in which we now live, the range of our values has become much wider than before. Therefore, in order to answer for this diversity and think of various new approaches to construction, it is necessary to think freely and flexibly of architecture. We believe that considering a new method for independent architectural design, both technically and conceptually, can be the most significant in the current generation.
Through the process of exploring these two components of architecture beyond their known limits, we intend to take conventional architecture to a new dimension, both physically and conceptually, and to continue testing the possibilities of new architecture today.

Junya Ishigami
2014 Kenzo Tange Visiting Chair in Architecture and Urban Design