DAY 15: one last shop, one last shinkansen, then home
We are off the plane at the Gold Coast airport, it is 6am in the morning, and we are all exhausted as we drag ourselves and our much heavier bags and our duty free booze to the bus.
DAY 14: but wait....there's more.....we visit Klein Dytham
Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham invited us to their office where they spoke to us about their practice. It was inspirational. To see more go to
DAY 14: the icing on the cake at Tama Art University
The university building at the Tama Art University was designed by Toyo Ito. Whilst in some ways it is a simple arched building, the interior is gobsmacking.we were not allowed to take any pics inside so go here to see some:
http://www.dezeen.com/2007/09/11/tama-art-university-library-by-toyo-ito/
also for info on the uni:
http://www.tamabi.ac.jp/english/about/hachioji.htm
http://www.tamabi.ac.jp/english/about/hachioji.htm
DAY 14: next stop Hanamidori Cultural Center
A project by Atelier Bow-Wow, the Hanamidori Cultural Center in Tokyo's Tachikawa City opened in 2005. Fifteen cylinders are topped with green and connected by a sweeping green roof of park landscape. Like shade under a tree, the inside and outside spaces are connected intrinsically, with glass facades and openings. The trusses of this shelter structure are arranged for moment forces so that parts allow openings for larger plantings above.
It's a growing architecture that unifies landscape and building.
It's a growing architecture that unifies landscape and building.
for more info
Day 14: bus trip, next stop a community theatre by Toyo Ito
Someone called Jim has written a great blog about it. So go to
DAY 14: we get a bus and a tour guide....first stop Atelier Bow-Wow
Yoshiharu Tsukamoto was very gracious and welcomed us to his home/office. He spoke of the work of Atelier Bow-Wow and showed us around the building.
Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, along with his partner Momoyo Kaijima, founded Atelier Bow-wow in 1992. It is one the most unique practices of its generation. Bow-Wow embraces a kind of accidental urban vernacular, using their research/work to chronicle the complex - and often unforgiving - logic of the city. Acting as urban detectives, Bow-wow has catalogued the agility of Tokyo's fabric to produce radical programmatic collisions (Made in Tokyo) and nuanced micro architectures (Pet Architecture).(from http://www.archinect.com/features/article.php?id=56468_0_23_0_C )
for more stuff visit http://www.bow-wow.jp/
DAY 13: Shibuya and the hordes
Hachiko is a classic Japanese story of patience and loyalty. Hachiko was a dog who waited every day at the station for his master to get home. Even after the dog's master passed away, Hachiko continued to wait at the station.
Shibuya is famous for its scramble crossing. It is located in front of the Shibuya Station Hachikō exit and stops vehicles in all directions to allow pedestrians to inundate the entire intersection. Three large TV screens mounted on nearby buildings overlook the crossing. The Starbucks store overlooking the crossing is also one of the busiest in the world.
this site has some extraordinary photos of old Shibuya.
When you travel around Tokyo by train, the crowds are amazing. The stations teem with people and they are all heading in the opposite direction to us, as a rule. There was a moment on our trip when I was behind a couple of our team and we were dragging our suitcases behind us. they got to the top of an escalator and abrubtly stopped, faced with a sea of humanity. The next step being my ploughing into them followed by those behind me, I found myself yelling, don't stop! don't stop!! DOOON'T STTTOOOPPP!!!!! Disaster was averted and I collapsed with hysterical laughter.
DAY 13: ga gallery provided some respite with a nice cool video room with comfy seats.
Designed and constructed in 1974 by Makoto Suzuki and its current director Yukio Futagawa, GA Gallery is a well-weathered building dedicated to the display of architecture. Despite Japanese architects having achieved several decades of acclaim both at home and abroad, Tokyo only has two specialist architecture galleries of this kind.GA Gallery is located between Yoyogi and Harajuku Station in one of those overlooked recesses of the city. The building sits in between the roaring mess of ongoing construction work on Meiji Dori and the busy tracks of Yamanote line, and yet somehow this street manages to retain a sense of calm.
Once you have walked up the cantilevered stairs leading to the gallery, you find yourself in an uncompromising concrete cube of an exhibition space. GA Gallery’s displays aim to illuminate the complexity of the process architects go though in order to design and realize their structures. While you look at schematics and maquettes, the bare concrete walls of the gallery space are a constant, tangible reminder of the physicality of the end result.
Even when the gallery is between exhibitions, it is worth a visit for its bookshop. There you’ll find a comprehensive range of publications, with of course many from the ‘Global Architecture’ range of books and magazines distributed by the architectural publishing house behind the gallery. (http://artspacetokyo.com/artmaps/ga_gallery/)
DAY 12: a visit to the Olympic Stadium and we get to see a martial arts tournament opening ceremony!!
The National Olympic Stadium, in Shinjuku, was built in 1958 for the Asian Games. The stadium, with a roof that resembles that of a Japanese traditional temple, became world famous during the 1964 Summer Olympics. designed by Tange Kenzo, and completed in 1964, it is now the Yoyogi National Gymnasium.
DAY 13: Harijuku first
Harajuku is the common name for the area around Harajuku Station on the Yamanote Line in the Shibuya ward of Tokyo, Japan. The area is known internationally for its youth style and fashion. Harajuku street style is promoted in Japanese and international publications such as Fruits.
If you want to try, there are rules among the subsets. for advice see http://www.wikihow.com/Dress-Harajuku-Style
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