Architect, Kisho Kurokawa is planning to run for Tokyo Governor:

“Internationally acclaimed architect Kisho Kurokawa indicated Wednesday he may run in the forthcoming Tokyo gubernatorial election.

Kurokawa, 72, has stated his intention to stand in the gubernatorial race to be held on April 8 unless the 74-year-old incumbent Tokyo governor, Shintaro Ishihara, abandons his plans to seek reelection.

By indicating his desire to run, Kurokawa apparently hopes to persuade Ishihara not to seek reelection for a third term.

Among his campaign pledges, Kurokawa said he intends to push for the withdrawal of Tokyo’s bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games and would promote the relocation of the functions of the capital.”

Japanese architects have always been very critical of Tokyo, I wonder what Kurokawa would mean for the city?

The appetite for storage it seems is huge, but how much do we really need? Looking at our own office, we need a certain amount of storage space for reference materials, project files, and drawings. Design is a paper intensive business, but once the project is finished we scan everything and keep all the past projects in digital format.

Lesson 1: Even though we need to keep our finished projects on file, we rarely refer to these files. We learned that happens at most our clients offices as well, files might need to be kept for legal or other reasons, but once a project has been completed, an order placed, the files are hardly, if ever, accessed.

Personal storage: Here too, I want to speak from my own experience, I have one pedestal at my desk. This pedestal is full…with stuff for which I have had not had the *cough* time to sort out: name cards that I have received recently (about 50 in a box) that still need to filed, meeting minutes, receipts, drawings, CV’s, post-its, pens, paperclips, note books, more name cards, keys, notes, glue sticks, digital recorder, credit card, dictionary, photographs, post cards with invitation to opening parties (in 2006), data CD’s, sunglasses, warrenties, more post-its…

Lesson 2: most personal filing cabinets are transit boxes for stuff that does not have an immediate permanent location in the office. The transit usually goes from wallet, bag, pocket, top of the work suface (clean desk policy!) to the pedestal, personal filing cabinet. 90% of the stuff could be thrown away or filed digitally.

One of our clients, BearingPoint was featured in the TV programme “Jisho, Katcho Shatcho” (Company, manager, president) this Wednesday. Using the office as a backdrop in which two comedians fool around, and introducing Bearingpoint’s people and the jobs these people do. The programme is sponsered by Recruit, a major recruiting and job placing company, and in a very light way, various companies are introduced, showing what one can expect working for a company like BearingPoint. Below some pictures I took of the programme.

The play area.

Uchida-san talking about the concept of the office redesign. Taking the example of “the cocoon” explaining that a large percentage of the staff are consultants and basically can work wherever they want. Thus coming to the office is a chance to meet colleagues and the office is a way to encourage brainstorming and exchanging ideas.

Britain’s commission for architecture and the built environment has created a site for 11-16 year olds to learn about the concepts of design. Using a series of questionnaires children (anyone actually) can learn the importance to balance functionality, build quality and impact. Never too young to learn.

Which places work