co+laboradović  Exhibition of 10 emerging architects Madrid>Tokyo - supported by co+labo  

On Friday, 28th October, from 16.30, we will celebrate the Opening of the exhibition '10 emerging architects madrid>tokyo' at Around the Corner Grain building, designed by Eureka. The exhibition, which was initiated and co-organised by the team which includes co+labo's Paula Jaén Caparrós and Sano Satoshi will stay open until 7th November at 2-11-11 Motobuto, Urawa-ku, Saitama-ken.

This original, mirroring exhibition presents twenty emerging architects. Ten young architecture studios from Madrid will be exhibit their work in Tokyo while, simultaneously, ten young up-and-coming Japanese offices from Tokyo will be presenting their projects in Madrid.

The opening of the event in Tokyo will also be a farewell to our Paula Jaén who, after spending two productive years at co+labo, continues her research of disassemble architecture at the UC Berkeley. As an excellent researcher, inspirational sempai, teacher and contributor to co+labo culture, Paula will be - irreplaceable. 

The Friday event will feature a talk by Marcelo Pardo Ruiz, one of the architects exhibiting there. Marcelo has recently won AAP - American Architecture Prize 2016, the selection for the Bienal Internacional de Arquitectura de Argentina  2016, and the Luis Mansilla National Prize in Madrid.

co+laboradović proudly supports this event.

co+laboradović     three new issues of co+labo magazine urbophilia      


co+labo has recently published three new issues of our irregular newsletter/magazine urbophilia. 

urbophilia 06 (editor Vedrana Ikalović, co+labo PhD student) focuses at the recent boom in construction of residential high-rise buildings in Tokyo. It brings together one hundred examples of extra high residential buildings which were built the period 1985-2015. The examples were compiled and analysed by undergraduate students of Theories of Architecture and Urban Design.  

urbophilia 07 (editor Marco Capitanio, co+labo PhD GESL student) entitled West of Japan, East of Europe focuses at the work of Bruno Taut and, in particular, his Villa Hyuga in Atami, Japan (1936). The magazine brings essays by Marco Capitanio and Darko Radvić and extracts from their discussion on Taut's work with Kengo Kuma, along with selected photos of Villa Hyuga by Dave Clough and a set of detailed technical drawings of that building by Marco Capitanio and co+labo students. This issue of urbophilia was inaugurated on 9 September 2016, as a catalogue of an exhibition on Taut at Università IUAV in Venice. 

urbophilia 08 (editor Davisi Boontharm, co+labo Associate), entitled inVISible, presents a series of watercolours by Davisi Boontharm, Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban design at Sophia University and Keio. These paintings are part of her visual explorations of spatial quality, an original Sketch and Script research method in which she combines standard methods of urban explorations with intuitive, artistic excursions into the subjective, subliminal findings. urbophilia 08 was inaugurated as a catalogue of the exhibition inVISible at the Vis Cultural Centre, on 15 September 2016.

All issues of urbophilia are available from co+laboradović by request. pdf versions will soon be available at this blog and co+labo web site: www.radovic.sd.keio.ac.jp             

co+laboradović   co+labo radović students won all three awards at Diploma Design Competition  

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It was great to be a co+labo member at Diploma Design Competition last Saturday. 

All six co+labo undergraduates were excellent. The Jury (Kobayashi Hiroto, Ito Hiroyuki, Sano Satsohi, Darko Radović, Kishimoto Tatsuya and Jorge Almázan) gave all three awards to co+labo students - Mikogami Mayuko (1), Yamashita Yohei (2), and Onishi Keitaro (3). Works of Kobayashi Daisuke, Takasu Yukie and Morimoto Mei was of similar quality, generating a lot of discussion and positive comments.

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co+labo was, again, at the epicentre of the event, with our students passionately debating, sometimes strongly opposed ideas. Their willingness and ability to debate, the capacity to formulate and defend ideas in a collegial, friendly, yet strong and uncompromising way was another quality of the last evenings event which we have never had before. That shook a deeply entrenched stereotype that “Japanese students never question authority”, showing that how continuing emphasis on critical thinking is bringing the results, which get well expressed in both design and in words.

Drawings by (top line, from the left) Mikogami Mayuko, Yamashita Yohei, Onishi Keitaro, (bottom line, from the left) Kobayashi Daisuke, Morimoto Mei, and Takasu Yukie.

co+laboradović        co+labo at the 5th Anatomy of Islands Symposium and Workshop    4      
co+laboradović  a Japanese Pavilion, Keio Kobayashi Lab+co+labo+partners present to Vis  

In 2015, Keio University team, as regular participants of the Anatomy of Islands events proposed to design and construct a Japanese Pavilion. The purpose of that small, multi-purpose building is to both mark the conclusion of the rich and inspirational series of Symposia and Workshops, and to express their gratitude to the people of Vis, the generous hosts of Anatomy and its participants.

The pavilion was designed in Tokyo, by Kobayashi Laboratory and Radović Laboratory co+labo, using an innovative structural system designed by Professor Hiroto Kobayashi and his team. The structural material was provided by our strategic partner, Politecnico di Milano, while the University of Ljubljana facilitated the cutting and production of structural elements in Slovenj Gradec. The town of Vis provided the site in a beautiful olive yard, the foundations and help with acquisition of the material for architectural finishes. The Pavilion was completed with support and encouragement of many individuals and institutions, to all of which we remain grateful.

The very location of this project, between the kindergarten, the school and the public park, as suggested by the Mayor Radica, sends a clear message: the Pavilion is there to provide a refined meeting place, the place to encounter and cherish cultural difference. Its fragile, elegant wooden structure enters a dialogue with the eternal beauty of the traditional stone environments of Vis. In a very Japanese way, this temporary enclosure will weather and change. Wood demands maintenance and care. It thus teaches manners, a particular kind of urbanity to which it responds with grace and generosity of refined, prolonged lasting, continuity and change.

Keio University team leaves the Pavilion to the town Vis, in hope that the children, other residents and visitors of Vis will love it and take care of it. The already popular Teahouse is going to last as as long as it is loved, taken care of, and maintained. In return, this building will remind everyone of the Anatomy of Islands in an active way, by facilitating communication, better understanding and development of an ability to live together.

co+laboradović        co+labo at the 5th Anatomy of Islands Symposium and Workshop    3     

This year, co+labo proudly assisted the set-up of the second exhibition by Davisi Boontharm (Sophia and Keio Universities, Tokyo). Her series of watercolours exhibited under the title inVISible was a powerful reminded how unsustainable and how unnecessary is the schism between the artistic and scientific, between human abilities to reason and intuit. The exhibition was very well received not only by the locals and participants in the Anatomy events, but also by the tourists and participants in the last yacht regatta to visit Vis in this season.

co+laboradović        co+labo at the 5th Anatomy of Islands Symposium and Workshop    2     

One of co+labo contributions to Anatomy of Islands 2016 was the organisation of a discrete panel which introduced the Keio University Smart Islands Communities Initiative. By contextualizing the topic of Smart Communities as Smart Islands we hope to initiate future collaborative research and development projects of direct relevance for development in island communities and island regions, such as Croatia and Japan.

The Initiative starts from Darko's original call to establish a Manifesto for development of the island of Vis (9.2014). As the title of his paper suggested then, our approach to Smart Communities includes, but is not limited to the currently predominant technological approaches. Our team seeks holistic understanding of “smart development”, by including imperatives of environmental and cultural responsibility and responsiveness. We argue for development of the island which would be balanced with available resources, building upon, confirming and reinventing its uniqueness, in the search of continuing and sustained practices capable to (re)generate the authenticity and identity of Vis. Such approach combines the whole spectrum of time-honoured smart practices and responsible application of the cutting edge knowledge and smart capabilities.

The participants of the panel were Boontharm (Sophia and Keio Uni), Bravo (Uni Florence), Garagnani (Uni Bologna), Imperadori (Politecnico di Milano), Ivančić (Aiguasol, Barcelona), Kobayashi (Keio), Yamaguchi (Mitsukura Lab, Keio) and Radović).

co+labo presented a joint Mitsukura-Radović paper, entitled "Detecting, measuring, understanding and inclusion of pleasure in spatial design".

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co+laboradović        co+labo at the 5th Anatomy of Islands Symposium and Workshop    1     

In September 2016 the Adriatic island of Vis will host fifth and final Symposium and Workshop Anatomy of Islands. Darko Radović and co+labo were proud participants in all  events organised over the last five years, helping the founder of the Anatomy Boško Budisavljević and his team to truly internationalise that gathering of diverse group of academic, practitioners and residents, young and not-so-young, who gathered in Vis to think about the possibility of better future.

Over the years, co+labo helped bring to the island a number of generous contributors, including Kengo Kuma and his Lab (University of Tokyo, all five years!), Hiroto Kobayashi and Kobayashi Lab (Keio University), Keio University Professors Mita, Mitsukura, Kazuyo Sejima (SANAA), Tetsuo Kondo, Sano Satoshi, Keio strategic partners Politecnico di Milano etc., etc.

This year a lecture by Sano Satoshi, an architect and co+labo associate, opened the Anatomy of Islands Workshop.     

co+labo+David Clough@Biennale

co+laboradović                 co+labo in Venice, at La Biennale Architettura 2016                          
Following the Symposium West of Japan, East of Europe and the official opening of the co+labo-IUAV exhibition of Bruno taut's Villa Hyuga, co+labo students, Davisi and Darko visited exhibitions at the Architecture Biennale, with (at least) a promising title Reporting from the Front.