co+labo radović wishes a happy new year to all friends + associates + colleages + everyone else who shares our passion for livable and lovable cities and architecture

co+labo radović hosted another lecture, this time by the prominent architect from Barcelona, Miguel Roldán

An excellent lecture showing the latest from the  Roldán+Berengué office was held 13 December at Keio Hiyoshi Campus, concluding an exceptionally rich season of co+labo Radović visiting lectures which, only in the last four weeks, included exciting presentations by Marco Imperadori (Politecnico di Milano 12 November), Kengo Kuma (17 November), Kazuyo Sejima (19 November) and Davisi Boontharm (29 November) and, eventually, that of Miguel Roldán.

three in a row - co+labo Barnhouse at Meme Meadows, Hokkaido has a new neighbour

On Saturday, 23 November 2013, LIXIL Foundation has formally opened the Horizon House, a Harvard GSD winning scheme at the 2013 International Student Competition (designed by a group of students, under the mentorship of Professor Mark Mulligan). At the official opening ceremony, chaired by the Editor of Shinkenchinku-sha, Mr Shikata, LIXIL and Shunkenchiku have announced the Third LIXIL Competition (to which, unfortunately, previous winners Harvard, co+labo Keio and Waseda, could not be invited). The theme of 2014 Competition is - Productive Garden. 
You can find full official video recording from Meme Meadows at ustream.  

co+labo students, Kira Horie, Saki Kozono, Moe Suzuki, Sotaro Miyatake, Wakataro Ueno, and Yoshihiro Sasamura took part in events which included an exchange of experiences about design and construction of the Barnhouse and Horizon House with their colleagues from GSD. co+labo's  Sasamura-san presented to the audience and media representatives a detailed post-occupancy report on the Barnhouse and progress report on an ongoing co+labo design-research project, Architecture which gets better over time, which started at Meme Meadows earlier this year.

               

           

from 3rd Mn'M Symposium, organised by co+labo at the Keio Yagami and Hiyoshi Campuses 15-17 November 2013

The participants of the third Mn’M 2O13 Symposium met the highest expectations of the organiser, completing three days of intensive work in a fantastic, collegial and highly intellectually stimulating atmosphere, ending with a number of concrete proposals how to complete the senryaku project and continue fruitful collaboration - with concentrated work on joint projects, publications and research grant proposals.

Thanks go to all Mn'M participants, the list of which included: Akiyoshi Inasaka, Aleksandar Ivančić, Alice Covatta, Apiradee Kasemsook, Ben Highmore, Christian Dimmer, Darko Radović, David Sim, Davisi Boontharm, Heide Imai, Hidetaka Hontani, Hiromoto Oka, Hendrik Tieben, Ilze Paklone, Joaquim Silvestre, Jorge Almazán, Kengo Kuma, Lorenzo Tripodi, Marco Imperadori, Masa Inakage, Masami Kobayashi, Milica Muminović, Nuttinee Karnchanaporn, Oriol Clos, Rafael Balboa, Ryoko Iwase, Satoshi Honda, Satoshi Sano, Seiichiro Katsura, Sidh Sintusingha, Soya Oikawa, Takahiro Yakoh, Takashi Maeno, Takumi Saikawa, Tetsuo Kondo, Tomoyuki Furutani, Tamao Hashimoto, Tetsuo Kondo, Toshiki Meijo, Zoran Djukanović, Wimonrart Issarathumnoon, Yasue Mitsukura + all co+labo radović members.

the biggest annual event hosted by co+labo, the Mn'M Symposium, will be held at the Keio Yagami and Hiyoshi Campuses 15-17 November 2013

Third Mn’M 2O13 Symposium will summarise the key points of the work conducted over the last three years and look at urban futures, with a noble aim which is embedded in the very nature of design – to imagine and to contribute to making of a better world. The participants of the Symposium will deliver short, efficient, pointed papers based on their research and/or design-research practice, and posters - with clear position, sharp focus at key Mn’M themes, and an emphasis on opening new questions and offering them to the Symposium. The accepted papers and posters present the emerging ways of thinking, making and living the urban in a rapidly changing world. Mn’M Symposium 2O13 will operate through plenary sessions and intensive follow-up group discussions, which will seek to abolish disciplinary group divisions and reach an interdisciplinary synthesis. Verbal presentations and posters will provide the starting points and a background of referential case studies, which will facilitate concrete discussions and innovative, cross-disciplinary thinking. The Symposium will end with, at least, the seeds of thinking that could help further advance Mn’M agendas or, at best, with workable coalitions of ideas – concrete proposals how to advance thinking, making and living better cities.
The participants include: Aleksandar Ivančić, Apiradee Kasemsook, Ben Highmore, Christian Dimmer, Darko Radović, David Sim, Davisi Boontharm, Heide Imai, Hidetaka Hontani, Hiromoto Oka, Hendrik Tieben, Inasaka Akiyoshi, Jorge Almazán, Lorenzo Tripodi, Marco Imperadori, Masa Inakage, Masaki Usami, Milica Muminovic, Nuttinee Karnchanaporn, Oriol Clos, Rafael Balboa, Ryoko Iwase, Satoshi Honda, Satoshi Sano, Seiichiro Katsura, Sidh Sintusingha, Takahiro Yakoh, Takashi Maeno, Takumi Saikawa, Tomoyuki Furutani, Tamao Hashimoto, Tetsuo Kondo, Toshiki Meijo, Zoran Djukanović, Yasue Mitsukura, Yasushi Ikeda, Yui Issarathumnoon

Ken Akatsuka, a co+labo M2 student, has won first prize at the Central Glass International Architectural Design Competition

The Central Glass Competition is an institution with long tradition. Since 1966, many of the CGS awardees became well-established and recognised architects, starting from with the very first winner, Kan Izue (later the 10^th president of the Japanese Architects Association). The juries regularly include the internationally most prestigious Japanese architects, such as Riken Yamamoto, Taro Ashihara, Hiroshi Naito, Kengo Kuma.

In response to the 48th CGS theme of Bringing Urban Environment into Architecture, Akatsuka-san and Inoue Gaku (from Almazán Laboratory) co-authored Urban Radio Caravan, a scheme which proposes construction of a temporary radio station, which would be moving from city to city in the northern part of Africa. The station would absorb urban complexities of its context and contribute to development of stronger communities in the cities which are facing numerous problems caused by rapid urbanisation. 

Ryoko Iwase, a research assistant at co+labo, has won an invited competition for young architects

The competition, which was supported by Asahi Glass Company, asked the participants to respond to the theme of “Glass architecture and the variety of light”. Ryoko-san used thin glass sheets, which are usually used for TV and mobile displays, to accentuate the relation of that subtle material with the light and wind conditions of the site. Her poetic, elegant winning proposal will be built at the AGC studio gallery in Ginza, and stay there for three months, in the season spring/summer 2014.

co+labo Barn House published in the major Thai design magazine art4d

getting close to the anniversary of the official opening ceremony of the co+labo Barn House at Meme Meadows in Taiki-cho, Hokkaido in November last year, a prominent Thai magazine art4d has published an article about our project, entitled To-gether - referring to one of its key points, the symbolic and existential co-habitation of humans and horses. In the meantime co+labo, supported by LIXIL Foundation, is researching the performance of the Barn House and, true to the concept of self-learning architecture, works on its incremental, perpetual improvements – exploring the possibility of an architecture which can (again, as architecture used to) get better, and do not decline with the passage of time (you can, occasionally, find updates about that at the Barn House blog: http://colabobarnhhouse.blogspot.com).

(in November this year, there will be another celebration at Meme Meadows – opening of the Harvard GSD-designed Horizon House, the next-door neighbour of the Barn House)