Very interesting work by Sashie Masakatsu.
Category Archives: Japan
Monkey Business
It is said that when you would put enough monkeys behind a typewriter in the end they would produce something like Shakespearian prose. According to a test done by Plymouth university giving six monkeys a computer and produced five pages of text, consisting of mainly the letter S, and later the letters A, J, L and M crept in. OK, ok, QED : monkeys don’t write works of shakespeare. So what do monkeys do in an office then? Well, Pan-kun, Japan’s favourite chimp does pretty much what many people do in the office: ignoring strangers, wasting paper, and trying to become invisible.
Â
omodake kokiriko bushi
I’m not fond of J-Pop (I hate it) but this is a great song, great video. Excellent cheapo Casio sounds!
The end of architecture
J@pan Inc asked my views on architecture of Japan and especially Tokyo. Although it is presented as if written by Jun Mitsui (I used to work for him), you can read the whole story here.
Jun Mitsui’s point that Japan is becoming a disposal ground, a toilet for foreign architects, is funny indeed, but I think rather outdated. Most of the interesting architecture in Japan these days comes from young Japanese architects, the days of foreign dumpings (potty training would be a better description), in my opinion are over. Don’t forget that most of the shit built here is by Japanese architects.
The new Peninsula, dumped according to the new colour regulations?
Why is Tokyo so ugly, but how can it still generate such fantastic architecture?
Leave a reply
The question for 2008, and here is my (easy) answer:
1. Japan has the highest pro-capita rate of architects, of the 1.2million registered architects world-wide Japan has over 300,000,
2. There are very few aesthetic regulations: anything goes,
3. In the chaos architects work hard to make their buildings stand-out,
4. Tokyo has some of the world’s most daring and cash-rich clients,
5. Japanese construction companies (not only the major ones) are the world’s most advanced,
6. Buildings have an average life-span of around 30 years,
7. The city has been destroyed many times over (and most likely will be again soon).
Building naming
When we were expecting our first baby I bought a book called 10,001 baby names. For most high rise buildings here in Tokyo the owners (or whoever stick a name to the building) seem to have a list of 5 or 6 words that they then add the location of the building.
The words are:
Garden
Hill(s)
Park
Tower
City
Throw these words in a pot and you get:
Park Axis Aoyama 1-chome Tower
How very unoriginal. The list could go on for ever it seems. 4-5 story buildings are called Towers, and grey concrete buildings called Park or Garden.
Interestingly enough, sometimes a building is called after a location where it is not even build on.
Construction, Corruption and suicide.
Is this Japan in a nutshell? Yesterday and last week Obayashi, one of Japan’s largest construction firms was investigated by police in another round of bid rigging scandals. Alex Kerr has written extensively in his book “of dogs and demons” on the way the Japanese government has initiated an inward development by creating jobs in the country side of Japan through an endless stream of construction works. Kerr notes the countless roads, dams, embankment works etc… that have concretised the Japanese countryside. All the major Japanese construcution companies have been riding a wave of steady prefectural work since the late 70’s. Dango, as bid rigging is called in Japan, has been more or less accepted as part of the process. An interesting paper on dango here.
These days however, the government seems to be cracking down on this practice and heads are (literally) rolling. Some jump to their deaths and some, like the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries hang themselves. Obviously these people did not see another way out, except for an easy death. Takeo Obayashi, however, CEO and chairman of the Obayashi construction company is being “demoted” to board director and Norio Wakimura, president, will leave his post to become an “advisor”. Even though Wakimura’s resignation will be the first time that a head of a construction company takes responsibility for bid rigging, it all looks too convenient to me.
Don’t
I found this sign at a building where we are doing a project at this moment. There is a tiny park next to the office tower. Someone has been very creative in thinking of all the things that one can not do in this park. (some of the pictographs are just downright silly) Wouldn’t it be more interesting if this person had been conceiving ideas of all the fun things you actually could do?
Kurokawa as Tokyo Governor?
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?
Jisho Katcho Shatcho
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.
