Can you talk about the main principle of “Weak Architecture”? Does it still influences your design Today, in the same manner?

Yes, it still does. The essence of Weak Architecture is to ensure harmony with the environment. The lesson I got from Kobe earthquake is that architecture cannot defeat the nature.

The nature seems to be quiet, but actually the true power of nature is stronger than architecture. Architecture cannot resist the strength of the nature.  What the architecture can do is to try to make harmony to live with nature. That is the essence of Weak Architecture.

Even today with the increase of international projects and with all technology available, you always go to the site.

Yes, that is correct.

What experiences you receive from this visits?

The experience I can get from the site visit is the feeling of the grain of Nature.

The grain?

Yes, exactly.  I believe each environment should have the size of a grain. It is the most important factor, a primary unit of Nature.  Last month I talked with professor “Sasaki” the specialist of “Affordance” about this as well.

“Affordance” theory about environment interests me very much. Mr. Gibson, an American scientist studied the Science of Affordance, in the 1960s, and his main theory is that Nature is a grain. An observer can feel the change of the environment by feeling the change of the grains size. That is why a silhouette or an image is not sufficient to determine the scale of any object or surroundings.  The outline of a mountain does not truly impress the human body. That is why the silhouette is not so important. What the scale of a human is able to observe is the grain of the mountain.  The size of a tree or a stone is the carrier of the most important information for the observer.

Determining the size of the grain it is the most crucial factor for orientation.  That is the theory of Affordance in a nutshell. It is a very interesting Science, and I see connection with my architecture. I am always designing according the size of the grain.

For instance in the Hiroshige Museum the size of the grain is  20 cm by 20 cm. It is the special size of the space. In case of the One Omotesando it is much bigger 60 cm by 60 cm. Each project has its own unique grain size, just as each environment.

Therefore, when I visit the site, I try to find the special size of the grain unique for that place.

A color, a silhouette and those kinds of characteristics we can get from the pictures, but the size of the grain you can only experience from site visits. It is hard for me to say why is that, but I can only get it from the site itself. Perhaps because pictures can be always distorted, scaled, framed, the real size becomes difficult to grasp.

Is this what you want to express when you also talk about “Architecture of Particles”?

Yes. Each particle, or grain, has a special softness. The size and softness of the grain can only be judged from the site visit.

For instance, if we think about the material of wood and steel, may they be with the same size and the same color, but the softness of the material is very different. For the human body that softness is really important, because its fragility.

Do you think this softness of the grain material can be connected with “Sustainable Design”?

Yes I believe so, because sustainability is deeply related to the softness of the materials. As a hard material exposes stress to the human body, stress to the environment, a soft material can have opposite effect.

In your project you always suggest the client to use local materials, at the same time it is said that in case of Yusuhara bridge project it was a request of the client to use local wood as main material. Do you think client’s perspectives are changing?

Actually it still depends on the clients. When I made my first project, they already asked to use local material, they wanted to use the local Cedar wood.  That was already 20 years ago.

This is because Yusuhara people are very proud of their heritage and the culture of nature they have. I think that kind of pride is very important, because if I can work with such strong client, together we can create truly strong architecture.

In case a client is not so proud of the site, they are always looking for something new from other places. Most of cases this kind of approach leads only to waste of time.

Japan now is leaving a different moment now. There have been already some big earthquakes before, but the 11.03 earthquake impact is very different.

Yes. The Tohoku earthquake is different from the ones occurred in Kyoto or Kobe, essentially because of the Tsunami. What we discovered from this earthquake is that how important these small villages were for us.

Even if those villages are small and few in population, still the culture of those villages and the history of those places are strong and deep.

For the Japanese culture, the Tohoku culture used to be very important. Sometimes people forget this and may believe that only the big cities are supporting the country. Actually in reality what big cities can do is very limited.

If we loose Tohoku area and their culture absolutely, it will be a true damage for my heart. I know the value of that place for more than 20 years, it was there when I did my first project the Stage in the Forest  (Noh Satge) in 97 in that area.  After that project I had the chance to continue my work there for another projects. The Noh Stage was followed by the Kitakami Museum, the Fukushima Noodle house, built all in Tohoku area . It is really important for our office.

They all are truly landscape related. Are you working in any actual project for the Tohoku area?

We started with 2 projects. One is EJP, the East Japan Project. It was founded to support the craftsmanship in the area.  I know the knowledge of the craftsmen in this area for their amazing skills, and I decided to support them with this initiative. (For more info about EJP, please follow this link: http://e-j-p.org/).

We invited young designers for cooperation and also asked big furniture companies to support our campaign for this project. Companies like Muji, Franc Franc and Corner Shop and others joined us.

A recurrent theme in your work is combining the old and the new: tradition and technology. You have been talking for a long time about weak architecture and connection to sustainability of materials. Do you believe if there are now more people talking about Japanese sustainable design.

Yes, I believe so. After Tohoku, the ideas of many people are changing. As for one example, I talked with Toyo Ito and he said that the abstraction of function cannot support Tohoku area.

His architecture I think is the architecture of abstraction, but he said the abstraction it is not enough for that particular place. Instead he believed the connection of the Human life to the place is the most important for Tohoku architecture.

I think he and me got something in common.

You are also one of the “KISHYN” members (Kuma, Ito, Sejima, Yamamoto, Naito), which is a non-governmental organization with no specific client. I think it is something completely new for you. Can you tell us some of the challenges that you are facing?

When we work with a client we can not do all what we desire, because a client has also a financial approach towards the project. Even an open-minded client has to follow some rules of economy.

But I believe what we should do for Tohoku is not a financial question, it is not about the money. In fact it is the opposite.

The power of a single person may be insufficient, that is why I invited some of my friends: other architects to send message to Tohoku and also to the students. The young generation is still naïve; and if a big earthquake occurs, the students from the architecture got shocked, because they say “Oh architecture is so weak”, no architecture can resist earthquake or tsunami. My goal was to encourage then, and the KISHYN member can do that.

Until recently the Economic power of Japan appeared to be very strong, and you recently published an article writing about the white box (meaning: concrete bunker). In certain way it is connected to the actual economic system too, can you talk about it?

Yes, that is correct. I talked about the Lisbon earthquake in 1755, that earthquake had a big influence on human life.

Before the earthquake people still believed in the power of God, supporting our life. But after the earthquake people got so shocked: they realized they should protect themselves by their own hands, by the strength of architecture. Architecture was believed to be the key to protect people, rescue lives, save money and earn the money.  The architecture can be the engine of the economics.

Today what we learn from recent events is, that there isn’t any white box that can save human life, even strength of structure is irrelevant. What can really save the life is the network between us, and this network is bigger than architecture. I think that is the big lesson from this tsunami. And we should create a new culture perfectly distinct from the last 3 centuries.


Written by Rita Topa, Gutai Mátyás