Check out Junya Ishigami and Associates‘ amazing studio + workspace where students of the Kanagawa Institute of Technology get to spend their days designing. The studio is about the closest you can get to the feeling of working outside while being indoors. The floor-to-ceiling glass makes the building appear weightless and elegant, and the open plan preserves the building’s sense of transparency as the viewer’s eye can shoot directly across the uninterrupted space. 305 columns of various sizes support the stripped roof of skylights, yet their white color keeps the focus on the space and the view, not the structure. The columns, although seemingly random, as specifically placed to create the sensation of zoned spaces, but their nonrestrictive quality provides a flexible layout to suit the changing needs of students.
Inspiring place to design in, wouldn’t you agree?
More photographs by Iwan Baan after the break.
As seen on Inhabitat. Images © Iwan Baan
Beautiful project… But why are the jpegs so tiny?? On my computer they look like postage stamps. You can’t even make out any details. What a tease.
This reminds me of the Crown Hall at the Illinois Institute of Technology, by Van der Rohe. Loves it.
Kanagawa Institute of Technology Workshop. http://bit.ly/aUKdg7
How about basic environmental design – won’t this overheat like crazy? Architects need to get over Mies and Corbu – that was LAST century.
how about combining the spaces of Mies and Le Corbusier with simple “sustainable” technologies. That would be so this century!
Super good project.
Stop judging a piece of work by just its outlook. This design has nothing to do with Mies and Corbu. And no it dose not look like the Crown Hall at all from both the exterior and the interior.
Please try to understand the philosophy of the architect. Take a look of the design concept and its obvious gesture of using random but “defined” columns. Its structural solution is inspiring, elegant and effective.
Looks nice, I would build same house in my practice. But honesty, concept not enough adopted to the context, it is a litle bit faceless… it could appear anywhere…
one word – SUPER!
I heard Junya Ishigami’s speech about this and some of his other projects before..
He doesn’t speak proper English, he brought along a translator, but the way he explained, the way he answered Q&A, was awesome.
He has a book published named Small Images..
You guys should have a look at that..
To understand his works, you guys need to understand how a Japanese architect works, and their culture, most importantly.
OK – it looks great, but to understand architecture you guys need to understand how physics work. You can’t fool with Mother Nature! I still hold that glass boxes belong to the last century. If this building is not air-conditioned I’ll eat my hat.
to up_today_arch
Please visit the building before saying that it can be anywhere. Pictures are really not enough to understand this project. The ‘concept’ can be used in another place, but the application of the concept is really contextual. They made so many models to find the perfect space for this site and program. Maybe some people are not ready to understand that sensitivity is a good way to find the architecture of 21th century.
this project project is extremely beautiful…
This seems like the question that everyone has, and I hope someone has some answers.
Shouldn’t this thing be like an oven for designers instead of a workshop?
Did he do specifically to keep it cool?
he probably didn’t do anything about those heating/cooling issues.. I think you can often see that sort of nonchalance in Japanese projects. Considering that occasionally houses there don’t have central heating or proper insulation perhaps it’s not totally out of character xD
seen this at 0300tv. wonder how he derived the arrangement of the column from?
After visiting this building in early October I am sad to say that although the pictures are beautiful and the concepts are evident. The building itself is almost inhabitable depending on the season. Great Architecture should serve the user well. In this building that is not the case. Architecture should be able to be used and not just looked at.