| |
SANAA
Houses by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa.
In early 2007 the Contemporary Art
Museum of Castilla y León (MUSAC)
presented an
exhibition "tracing the artistic trajectory"
of Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa
(SANAA). The trajectory of the duo -- whose design for the
New Museum of Contemporary
Art opened recently -- can be traced, like many architects,
through their house designs. This book, published in conjunction
with the above exhibition, presents twelve houses (five
complete, seven unfinished) by the architects, both collectively
and as individuals.
After a conversation with the duo
and curator Agustin Perez Rubio at the start of the book,
SANAA's Flower House is presented, taking up the most pages
of any project, and for good reason. Not only is the project
an impressive design that takes minimalism to an extreme
(like Herzog & de Meuron's also unbuilt Kramlich House),
with walls dissolving to leave only planes of floor and
roof, the museum also built a half-scale model in one of
its galleries to give visitors a unique perspective on an
architectural project. Not quite habitable (except for children)
but of such a scale that those not capable of deciphering
the conventional expressions (plans, sections, sketches,
small-scale models, etc.) could easily grasp the qualities
of the design.
The rest of the houses follow the
same presentation of the Flower House, meaning minimal explanatory
text and full-page images of models, design drawings, construction
drawings, and finished photographs. What's most remarkable
is the similarity of the conceptual images and the completed,
inhabited photos. The latter embody the minimal, abstract
qualities of the designs, even with the clutter of everyday
life. Some of this similarity owes to the photographs and
to the power of the image in conveying certain characteristics,
though praise must be given to the architects for their
ability in physically achieving their designs. It is clear
that the duo -- separate or together -- have an knack for
creating strong spaces, but they also grasp the means of
making them happen, making the construction disappear to
leave only what is required, the bare minimum. A few essays
close the book, but it is clearly the images, like any good
monograph and for good reason, that are the most rewarding.
or 
|
