To me, creating architecture is the act of studying reality and expanding its boundaries.
Even after majoring in architectural design at university, getting practical experience at an architectural firm, and beginning my own practice, rather than feeling as if I had finished learning, the need to study became even stronger as I considered and created my buildings. Learn and study are similar words. "Learn" suggests being taught and acquiring a certain skill, while "study" refers to the act of examining something. The word "study" also includes the nuance of active engagement. It suggests research, effort, and artistic studies. In the architecture world, it is used to mean the trial manufacturing of a design through models, but the act of objectively gazing, thinking, modifying, and cultivating an idea that you have devised is truly a process of active study. Cultivating an idea is also a means of developing yourself. In a semi-conscious state, you transcend yourself through the reality of a project, and attempt to discover a new you. Once you get to that point, you have the sense that a previously unimaginable, new reality has emerged. Studying reality and expanding its boundaries are two sides of the same coin.
For this exhibition, I have begun an architectural expansion of a kindergarten in the city of Ishinomaki, which suffered extensive damage in the Great East Japan Earthquake, which occurred in March 2011. After the extremely small building I have designed is erected in the gallery's courtyard, it will be moved to the school in Miyagi Prefecture after the exhibition has ended.
We now know that in the face of an unforeseen disaster such as an earthquake, it is difficult to deal with the situation through learning alone. Of course, this is also true of other situations. It seems to me that in addition to repeatedly questioning many different aspects and pursuing a wide range of real projects, study is an indispensable part of our era, defined as it is by a sense of complexity and uncertainty.
The act of studying improves the quality of creation. In this exhibition, I hope to present the consistently real and studied responses that I have used in my projects of the past and my current project in Ishinomaki.