Posted:Jul 17, 2013

Junya Ishigami: spaces big and small

“How small? How vast? How architecture grows.” exhibition at Shiseido Gallery.

This exhibition includes fifty-six projects by Junya Ishigami, mostly residential, shown through highly detailed architectural models.
This exhibition includes fifty-six projects by Junya Ishigami, mostly residential, shown through highly detailed architectural models.
Photo: Maurizio Mucciola

Junya Ishigami says that in today's world we need an architecture that goes beyond conventional values and scales, as the range of people's awareness expands in an age where it is possible to find out about almost anything in the world in an instant.
Junya Ishigami says that in today's world we need an architecture that goes beyond conventional values and scales, as the range of people's awareness expands in an age where it is possible to find out about almost anything in the world in an instant.
Photo: Maurizio Mucciola

'Housing in existing building'. This project takes part of an 21-floor building and modifies it into a residential/office space. The result is a living environment the height of a small mountain.
'Housing in existing building'. This project takes part of an 21-floor building and modifies it into a residential/office space. The result is a living environment the height of a small mountain.
Photo: Maurizio Mucciola
'Restaurant with distant view': Designing a building that transcends the site conditions. Set in the middle of grapevines, the restaurant would be designed with the sky above the vineyard as its site.
'Restaurant with distant view': Designing a building that transcends the site conditions. Set in the middle of grapevines, the restaurant would be designed with the sky above the vineyard as its site.
Photo: Maurizio Mucciola

Visitors looking at the models: 'City like a mountain', 'Cliff face a gathering place', 'Vertical Landscape'.
Visitors looking at the models: 'City like a mountain', 'Cliff face a gathering place', 'Vertical Landscape'.
Photo: Maurizio Mucciola

Some of the residential projects in the exhibition: 'Row house', 'Garden Terrace', 'Small Factory', 'Ruins and Building'.
Some of the residential projects in the exhibition: 'Row house', 'Garden Terrace', 'Small Factory', 'Ruins and Building'.
Photo: Maurizio Mucciola

'Bath Studies' asks how we can bring new levels of comfort to everyday living, comfort over and above essential functionality.
'Bath Studies' asks how we can bring new levels of comfort to everyday living, comfort over and above essential functionality.
Photo: Maurizio Mucciola

'Basket and House' imagines city life in the embrace of flora and fauna.
'Basket and House' imagines city life in the embrace of flora and fauna.
Photo: Maurizio Mucciola

Housing envisaged in the mode of a holiday home in the city in 'A weekend home in city'.
Housing envisaged in the mode of a holiday home in the city in 'A weekend home in city'.
Photo: Maurizio Mucciola

'Study of little gardens' has innumerable fingertip-sized containers transcending their function as vases to serve as small galleries for exhibiting pressed flowers.
'Study of little gardens' has innumerable fingertip-sized containers transcending their function as vases to serve as small galleries for exhibiting pressed flowers.
Photo: Maurizio Mucciola

'Color and Environment'. In architecture, colors are often chosen with a particular visual meaning in mind, but for this project color is considered in ways more intimately connected to how buildings are used, and the role of the city.
'Color and Environment'. In architecture, colors are often chosen with a particular visual meaning in mind, but for this project color is considered in ways more intimately connected to how buildings are used, and the role of the city.
Photo: Maurizio Mucciola

'Garden And Terrace' creates a kind of airy openness often absent from everyday living.
'Garden And Terrace' creates a kind of airy openness often absent from everyday living.
Photo: Maurizio Mucciola

With 'Big House' architecture is perceived not as shelter, isolating human beings from the natural environment, but as a means of creating new natural environments.
With 'Big House' architecture is perceived not as shelter, isolating human beings from the natural environment, but as a means of creating new natural environments.
Photo: Maurizio Mucciola

'Level Bridge' imagines a bridge running on and on, indefinitely.
'Level Bridge' imagines a bridge running on and on, indefinitely.
Photo: Maurizio Mucciola

'Group home'.
'Group home'.
Photo: Maurizio Mucciola

'Forest and city'.
'Forest and city'.
Photo: Maurizio Mucciola

'Planetarium inside a mountain' is, as its title suggests, a planetarium designed for a spherical space hollowed out of a mountain.
'Planetarium inside a mountain' is, as its title suggests, a planetarium designed for a spherical space hollowed out of a mountain.
Photo: Maurizio Mucciola

Maurizio Mucciola

Maurizio Mucciola

Born in Italy in 1977, studied architecture in Milan (and Lisbon for a year). After working in different architecture and landscape design firms he decided to go back to school and spent a year and a half at the architecture school of Columbia University in New York, while at the same time collaborating and shooting photos for "Volume Magazine". Then one year in Rotterdam at the Rem Koolhaas's Office for Metropolitan Architecture before he finally landed in Tokyo in January 2009 to work at Kengo Kuma & Associates Architects. Architecture really absorbs most of its time, but sometimes he likes to take in the city and go around art galleries and museums, and try to catch Tokyo through a Nikon camera.