(Tarzan in the media forest by Toyo Ito)
(The blog doesnt allow me to upload a picture but these are in the Media library)
The fall of a big structure the “Aoyoma” Hospital by the investors in Japan near of the building which Toyo Ito worked, produced a strong revolution in his mine 40 years ago. He starts to see how the architecture along the time turns in a developers race, the idea was to build big and high structures without concern of the surroundings, unfortunately in Tokyo like in the most cities of the world the economy market decide about those big projects, big towers of condominiums in the middle of a group of houses. Ito mention that in the past Japan was characterized of integrate architecture and nature; that’s the main idea of almost all the topics of these lectures because all different architects and painters conclude the same idea, we need to return to the origins, but not in the way that all the people today are doing, people are talking about global environmental, ecological, sustainable but rather than being open to the natural environments, they are reinforcing inside and outside boundaries, constructing stable artificial environments and installing devices such as solar cells, the real meaning of back to the origins is to make a relationship not only between the nature and the architecture, the architecture needs to equilibrate the neediness of the city, the environment and the people identity, to respect its cultures and the way of live, and in this case I think that Toyo Ito nowadays wants to transform the architecture in a crossroads between all of these needs.
Therefore Toyo Ito started to study the trees, the shapes, the way it lives and the process in which they relate, because is a perfect structure that has all the elements that really the architecture needs. For example a tree can only survive within a vast number of relationships, it depends of interrelations with the surrounding environment as it grows, and he started to compare the thick branches with a fractal shape.
Toyo Ito summarize the most important topics based in his studies.
1) Thinking about architecture must be based on relativistic relationships with the environment.
2) The overall image of a work of architecture should not be unequivocally decided, but begin with loos image that is gradually clarified by repeating various simulations.
3) While based n simple rules, architecture should be composed with a complex order.
4) By means of fractal geometry, the outer surface of architecture should produce ambiguous inside/outside boundaries.
5) Architecture must be open to the environment.
There were some events that made trace on Toyo Ito, his first work the aluminum house which was characterized by big spaces of light, he use a lot of technology so a magazine calls his work like Urbot. The other was the admiration that he had with 5 young architects the most important Kenzo Tange.
And the other the peak 1964 and the threshold of 70´s in which were involved other architects from whom he learned much, Arata Isozaki who said “there is no future for architects” and Kazuo Shinohora the creator of house, his house in white made a lot of impact on Ito, because Kazuo characterized his houses like a Japanese house “Minka”, but in the interior the spaces are so freshness, with a singular pillar in the center dividing two spaces, the wider is with double height hall and the narrow to story bedroom and kitchen.
The other building was the Mediatheque characterized by amazing beauty, abstraction and emptiness.
In conclusion Toyo Ito wants that the new generation of architects return to our primitive standpoints, making us these questions. ¿For whom is architecture made? ¿Why is architecture made? ¿How is architecture made?
Research
Im really interested in this topic to make a research of how we can create a relationship between the architecture and the nature, how can we create a symbiosis?
And I refer with symbiosis the same term like in ecology “Symbiosis” (from Ancient Greek σύν ”together” and βίωσις ”living“) is close and often long term interaction between two or more different biological species.
How can we make that the two species in this case can live together, how can we make that the nature can have benefits of the architecture and vice versa, Im quite agree with the statement “Return tour primitive standpoints” I think that we need that the nature take its place again, so Im really interesting in research how can make this possible.