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A. In architectural history, the crowning achievement of glass architecture is the Crystal Palace, designed by Joseph Paxton for the International Exposition in London in 1851. Until that time, European architecture had small windows barely sufficient to admit light, but since the first half of the twentieth century, it has been gradually opened up through the use of steel frames, reinforced concrete, and large panes of glass. Today, buildings which make extensive use of glass can be built relatively easily, but I want to recover the impact glass had when it was first introduced. I am using glass with this in mind. For the Fondation d'Art Contemporain François Pinault, I am considering modulating the spaces by controlling the transparency and opacity of the glass. One of the images I have in mind is of the glazed house --- located on a narrow lane near Boulevard Saint-Germain --- which is a masterpiece of Modern architecture, built in 1932 by Pierre Chareau. The house is a modern space inserted into an old masonry apartment building by hollowing out the first and the second floors. It doesn't have any windows on the façade, but instead the whole wall surface is built with glass blocks, whose translucency generates a marvelous, light-filled world. I didn't know of it when I visited Paris in my twenties, but after I started working as an architect I visited this building on a friend's advice. I remember feeling tremendous regret for not having seen it in my twenties. Now, I plan to make use of the subdued light and obscured vision I experienced in that house, along with the sparkling water of the Seine, in the spaces of the new museum. Q. The architecture of Tadao Ando brings to mind images of concrete... A. After I started my own architectural office in my late twenties, I focused on concrete because of the rationality of being able to integrate interior and exterior finishes, and also its low cost. I soon became aware of the expressive possibilities of exposed concrete, and around the time that I designed the Row House in Sumiyoshi I started being careful about the way the concrete was used, including the arrangement of the formwork panels. Working on that house made me realize the toughness of this material. Concrete is not a material that one can simply use as one pleases. People generally think that concrete is always the same, but it isn't. Even though the material is the same, its strength, durability, texture, and appearance can vary greatly depending on the circumstances, including the sensibilities of the people who create it. Le Corbusier had his own concrete, while Louis Kahn had his. Q. It's said that the English prefer steel construction, while the French prefer concrete. Is that right? A. That's because, after all, these countries have different histories. In Paris, for example, there is an apartment building on Rue Franklin by Auguste Perret, which is said to be the first Modern building in reinforced concrete. This building is always cited in histories of Modern architecture, and 30 years ago I also took time to seek it out. At that time, however, I couldn't really understand its importance. I was more interested in Perret's Théâtre des Champs-Élysées with its distinctive classical façade. It was only after I started to build in concrete myself that I realized his advanced position. On this trip, I stood in front of the Rue Franklin apartment building, which I hadn't seen for a long time, and found that a new shop for a German lighting manufacturer occupied the first floor. Looking at the building again, I can better understand its significance. Behind the façade, designed in the Art Nouveau style, is a fully developed vocabulary of Modern architecture that takes full advantage of reinforced concrete --- such as a totally new type of plan, a roof garden, and the use of glass blocks to bring natural light into the stairwell. I think Perret's subsequent influence on the architectural world was perhaps even greater than Le Corbusier's. Another of Perret's key works is the church of Notre-Dame du Raincy, which was completed in 1923 and is described as the prototype of Modern church architecture. A time consuming restoration of this building was completed several years ago, carried out under Malraux's influence. In Japan, where the ongoing scrap-and-build process changes the cityscape every decade, we seldom have the opportunity to engage in a dialogue with a hundred-year-old modern building. Ultimately, I think culture emerges from the accumulation of things. It doesn't just involve generating new things. Culture exists on an axis extending out of the past, through the present to the future. Every time I visit Paris, I'm reminded of this. . photo_Pierre-Olivier Deschamps/VU . translation_Shoko Yamashita, Andrew Barrie |
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