Tomio Koyama

BEFORE ARCHITECTURE, AFTER ARCHITECTURE
Kiyonori Kikutake, Toyoo Ito, Kazuyo Sejima, Ryue Nishizawa, SANAA

An exhibition "Before Architecture, After Architecture" will be held at Tomio Koyama Gallery from August 1st to the 29th. This exhibition will represent four individuals and one firm, namely, Kiyonori Kikutake, Toyo Ito, Kazuyo Sejima, Ryue Nishizawa and SANAA. It will mainly show drawings and models made by these Japanese architects. Most of the displayed works are of projects that are unrealized or are in process of being organized. These drawings and models created by the architects during the designing process construct virtual reality of non-existing architecture and space, so in that sense they are "yet-to-be architecture". This exhibition tries to pursue the symbolic possibilities and various development of this "yet-to-be architecture".

Kiyonori Kikutake will show a concept sketch and model of Marine City that he had been planning since the 1950's. Kikutake had been contemplating on future human environment, what he calls the "Floating City as Marine Architecture " that surmounts the ordinary architectural concept, realized on the border of technology projected from each era to the future. In this show, we will investigate the changes of an architect's imagination through looking at the drawings of "Marine City 1958" which is a starting point, to "Linear Marine City" in 1993.
Toyo Ito will display some drawings and models from competition on New Deichman Main Library in Oslo Norway that took place this spring. Ito's designing process is largely based on consensus. He presents words that become a conceptual core, and through many group discussions invisible idea is directed and given shape. This process is quite enchanting. The sketches and notes made by Ito lead this voyage without a map to its final destination.
Kazuyo Sejima will show a model of "INUJIMA ART PROJECT" that is in the process of being built in Inujima, Okayama Prefecture. Ryue Nishizawa will show models of "Garden & House" that is in the process of being built in Tokyo, and "t-project" a museum that is planned to be built on Teshima, Kagawa Prefecture. And SANAA, by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, will show a model of "EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne) Rolex Learning Center" During their designing process, a great number of study models are made in order to explore the spatial variation that are impossible to verbalize or conceptualize. These static models are a physical document of designing process that may seem to metamorphose on its own.

These four architects from different generations represent one kind of genealogy of Japanese architectural history after WWII.
This exhibition will try to re-examine this genealogy from the past 50 years.
Please come see the rich vision of internationally renowned architects that we could not otherwise see in the built architecture.