500彩票网

This book is based on a lecture I teach at the University of Tokyo, titled “Architectural Design No. 2.” It has been compiled into a book with some (a lot?) additions to the original lecture material. In addition to classroom lectures, the Department of Architecture has a design practice course called “studio.” In this course, faculty members usually provide students with hands-on training in the skills needed to create good designs by reviewing their drawings and models. However, this does not mean that lectures (as a mode of classroom learning) are irrelevant to the design process. How we see the world is directly related to how we create in that world. In other words, seeing is making. When we view the world through architecture, what do we see, and what should we see? Addressing such questions is essential in an architectural design course.
 
Since the “retreat from the city” by Japanese architects in the late 60s and early 70s, there has been little consistent effort to fundamentally reassess the relationship between cities and architecture. However, according to UN statistics, for the first time in human history, more than half of the world's population now lives in cities. Globally, this marks the beginning of the “age of the city,” calling for the need to bridge the gap from the earlier “retreat from cities.”

This book explores the phenomenon of “overlapping spaces” and advocates for a new relationship between cities and architecture in the 21st century. The main points of this book can be summarized as follows.

1. Modern architecture perfected the concept of space, but being a movement inspired by art, often resulted in a closed-off architecture that was disconnected from the outside world.
2. In a monsoon region like Japan, it is important to create thick boundary spaces that overlap urban and architectural spaces, rather than separating them with clear-cut boundary lines.
3. Re-using these overlapping spaces allows for a stacked urban design that invites broad participation and reconstructs the relationship between cities and architecture.
 
The ultimate aim of this book is to encourage readers to reflect on how architecture relates to the city, how it engages with society through space, and how architecture can be redefined in the context of this broader perspective.
 

(Written by KAWAZOE Yoshiyuki, Associate Professor, Institute of Industrial Science / 2025)