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Japanese Modern Architect -- Waro Kishi


     "I don't want my architecture to just have beautiful shapes, I want to have strange proportions and materials, to inspire others with unusual architectural elements ("Unsocial" Waro Kishi, 2012)." A few years ago, Japanese architect Waro Kishi became one of the world's most controversial designers, due to which he refused to put insulation in the walls of houses to keep them slim shapes. "It's not a bad thing when your work is questioned. It means that people are paying attention to your design and thinking about it ("Unsocial" Waro Kishi, 2012)." He replied in an interview.

    Waro Kishi is an architect who was born in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, in 1950. When he was studying in high school, people said that the computer era was coming. He didn't know what a computer was at that time, but he tried to get into that field. Therefore, he enrolled at Kyoto University as an electrical engineering major. In high school, he thought he was good at math, which was important for electronics. In fact, mathematics was like a philosophy that he found difficult to understand because he was a practical man. One day Waro Kishi visited a friend in friend’s apartment. The friend was studying architecture, which seemed like a very cultural thing to do. On the friend's shelf, he found Le Corbusier's monograph. Waro Kishi was surprised and asked, "Is this architecture? Can we do it?" The friend explained to him that in his department, he only calculated square meters, heights, which are the beginning of architecture. At that moment, Waro Kishi realized that passionate architecture is so full of rhythm of life. To be the creator of passionate architecture is what he really wants to live ("Unsocial" Waro Kishi, 2012). He decided to become an architect. After graduating from the department of electronics in 1973, he transferred to the department of architecture and graduated in 1975, after that he took a master's course in architectural history and graduated in 1978. When he studied architectural history, he decided to visit Italy as soon as possible, and the first destinations must be the Flemish and the Renaissance. For Waro Kishi, the "Spedale degli Innocenti" in Florence, designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, was so important that it was the first building which inspired him.


 https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spedale_degli_Innocenti#/media/File:Piazza_SS_Annunziata_Firenze_Apr_2008.jpg

    When he arrived at the square in Florence, the building seemed to him so modern that he thought it was not real. He thought that it should be a building built in the 19th century. Thus, he thought, "Where is the real Spedale degli Innocenti? Here's a copy!" However, it’s true (Kishi, 2017). We know the facade, the composition is geometric, the columns are very thin, and he noticed the use of metal tie rods, a very reasonable structure. This idea was later incorporated into his designs.

    After graduating from Kyoto University, Waro Kishi began working in Tokyo. "Tokyo is a contemporary city where everything is on the move and where people can do anything (Kishi, 2017)." he said in an interview. He wanted to be a contemporary architect. By chance, one day a colleague of his invited him to teach in Kyoto. So, after practicing in Tokyo for three years, he came back to Kyoto in order to become a teacher, and he decided to live here and set up his own office in Kyoto. Kyoto is only 1% of Tokyo in financial terms, so economically it's a very small city, but culturally it's a magnificent town. In fact, culture is the richness of Kyoto. People are surrounded by historical heritage (Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto, 1994). In the beginning, they had only small projects to work on, mainly as interior designers. Waro Kishi decided to escape the traditional architecture of Kyoto because he wanted to be a contemporary architect.

    Since 1981, Waro Kishi has been teaching at various universities, and he has participated in many exhibitions and lectures. Through continuous learning, he enriched his knowledge reserves, and accumulated experience in teaching. He tried to understand himself, to find his own design direction, and combined with the theory and practice. He tried to find one of the important elements in buildings, eventually develop for his own style, and lead to become an excellent architect.


References

"Unsocial" Waro Kishi. (2012, April 16). China Business News. https://www.yicai.com/news/1629331.html

Crudeli, A. (2017). Home, away from home. https://www.centoventigrammi.it/waro-kishi-interview/

Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto. (1994). World Heritage and Intangible Cultural Heritage. 

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