co+labo Radović @ Keio University

23 February 2012

co+labo + Leeds Metropolitan University
first part of the collaborative design/research project, funded by Daiwa Foundation
MANCHESTER 2012 DESIGN WORKSHOP
held 23-29.2.12 @ Biospheric Foundation, Salford, was successfully completed

the focus of the workshop was on urban biodiversity

host:

Biospheric Foundation, Vincent Walsh, Founder and Director
participants:

Leeds Metropolitan University, Professor Greg Keeffe and his students

Keio University, Professor Darko Radović, co+labo students

Bratislav Gaković, Architect (Manchester)

Sano Satoshi, Architect (Tokyo), a co+labo associate

co+labo Manchester United team:
   Lemmonier
   Kato
   Hoshikawa
   Akatsuka

to be continued ...

co+labo + Leeds Metropolitan University

second part of the collaborative design/research project, funded by Daiwa Foundation

TOKYO 2012 DESIGN WORKSHOP

will be held 23-29.3.12 @ co+labo Radović

04 February 2012

THESIS 2O12 co+labo students

Masters Research Theses

Shigeru Rakuman

The Flea Markets and Revitalization of Open Public Spaces in Tokyo

undergraduate Research Theses
Ken Akatsuka
A Morphological Study of Small Irregularly Shaped Urban Spaces - Split and Tokyo

Shinnosuke Hoshikawa

A Study of Materiality - The Streetscape Analysis of Urban Core of Nezu

Yukari Nishide

A Study of Stationary Activities in Places of Intensive Flow – The Case of Yokohama Station

Yoshiaki Kato
A study of experience of nocturnal scenery in central spaces of Tokyo

Kyosuke Kobayasahi
Composition and spatial context of children playgrounds in Minato-ku, Tokyo

02 February 2012

CO+LABO in 2O12
COMPETITION

co+labo was invited to take part in an exciting design competition for NEXT GENERATION SUSTAINABLE HOUSE in Taiki-cho, Hokkaido - along with nine other selected top schools of architecture (Tshingua University, China Academy of Art, Columbia University, MIT, AA School of Architecture, Aalto University, Technische Universität München, Politecnico di Milano, ETH Zürich, Universitetet i Oslo, Tohoku University and - Keio/co+labo)

first INTERNATIONAL co+labo WORKSHOP in 2O12

co+labo and Leeds Metropolitan University (Professor Greg Keeffe) have received a grant from Daiwa Foundation for a joint research/educational project, first part of which will be conducted 22-29 February in Manchester
Diawa Foundation Resilient Cities Workshop @ Biospheric Foundation Salford

Starting position

The city is changing: no longer is it an aesthetic creation, nor purely an industrial powerhouse. It is becoming a living, breathing super-organism, with a myriad of multiple, competing functions enabling the city to dwell within its particular ecology. As a super-organism, the future city will be defined more by its metabolism, than purely its primary function or spatial form. These bio-spheric flows of energy and materials will drive the new city and create new synergies for living. (G.K.)

co+labo opening of 2O12

RESEARCH PUBLICATION ACTIVITIES

Two books, first publication outputs of Measuring the non-Measurable, a major IKI research project which focuses on issues of urban density, intensity and public/private interface at architectural and urban scales have been published by IKI and flick Studio (in collaboration with ichii Shoubou, Studio Seto and Tokyo Pistol) in March and April 2012.

1
small Tokyo, edited by Darko Radović and Davisi Boontharm, Tokyo: IKI and flick Studio, (published 2012)

Contributors: Paul Waley, Hidenobu Jinnai, Kengo Kuma, Salvator-John A. Liotta, David H. Slater, Marieluise Jonas, Cathelijne Nuijsink, Jorge Almazán, Davisi Boontharm,, Heike Rahmann, Julian Worrall, Heide Imai, Ioanna Angelidou and Darko Radović.

Conversation between Kengo Kuma, Hidenobu Jinnai and Darko Radović, to be partially published in small Tokyo.

This bilingual collection of essays brings together the results of urban and architectural research which, from a variety of angles, focuses at one aspect of urban character of Tokyo, the surprising and seemingly contradictory juxtaposition of its essential bigness – as the largest city in the world, and an ubiquitous smallness – of urban spaces, architectural objects and practices which constitute everyday realities of Tokyoites.

The projects presented as small Tokyo were all conducted by foreigners with established interest in Japanese built environment and culture. The authors come from ten countries and four continents (Australia, Asia, America and Europe), and bring a variety of academic backgrounds, which include geography, urbanism, landscape architecture, architecture, ethnology, cultural studies. small Tokyo aims to contribute to theorising of that apparent incongruity, by addressing a variety of expressions of smallness. The book is equally addressed to the locals and foreigners. Its footing in research invites specialists, while style makes it accessible to general public.

2
The Split Case: density, intensity, resilience, edited by Darko Radović, Davisi Boontharm Ana Grgić and Kengo Kuma, Tokyo: IKI and flick Studio, (published 2012)

Contributors: Darko Radović, Kengo Kuma, Davisi Boontharm, Katja Marasović, Snjezana Perojević, Darovan Tušek, Ante Kuzmanić, Robert Plejić, Ana Grgić, Hrvoje Bartulović
with students from Kuma Laboratory (University of Tokyo), co+labo Radović (Keio University), and FGAG (Split) who took part in the Split Workshop 2011

Fieldwork sketches by Davisi BoontharmThis is a book about the ancient city of Split in Croatia. It presents research of remarkable intensity and resilience of its urban core, which sustains and keeps on reinventing a unique urbanity, for nothing less than 1700 years.

The Split Case brings together knowledge and lived experience of local authors, and curious and expert observations of the foreigners. In the form of a guidebook, inspired by Situationist dérive, it offers three "walks" through Diocletian Palace. The first is the walk through history, guided by the best of local academics, deeply steeped into the vécu of their city. After that, a number of snapshots gathered during an intensive investigation of that space, recreate the walks conducted in only one of 88,660 weeks in the history of Split. This multiple dérive ends with some open-ended walks into the future, presented through design-research investigations of several "what if" scenarios for the Palace,

The core material of the book comes from the collaborative project between the schools and architecture/urban design laboratories from the University of Split (FGAG), Keio University co+labo, and the University of Tokyo which was conducted in late summer 2011. The Workshop investigated historically established patters of urban life and the capacity of architecture and urban spaces to evolve and accommodate change. Using Diocletian’s Palace and its vicinity, the workshop engaged salient urban phenomena and issues such as urbanity, everyday life, smallness, density, intensity, creativity, (re)use, open space, cultural sustainability. The emphasis was on small, bottom-up interventions and their contributions to intensification of urban experience and quality.

28 November 2011

co+labo students @ LAKE KAWAGUSHI MARATHON

12-27. 11. 2011

19 November 2011

an interesting event organised by Hosei University, to be held at United Nations University

co+labo @

(Darko gave an invited lecture, and the co+laboPhD students Pega and Milica attended)

not even the deluge could stop the pre-Symposium walks
in Ginza (with Satoshi Okamoto) and Nezu and Yanaka (with Hidenobu Jinnai - see photos above)

14 November 2011

More photos from the MnM Symposium

the latest events@co+labo

Darko Radović's welcome and introduction to the Measuring the non-Measurable International Symposium, held at Keio University 2-4 November 2011.

The Mn'M project will be conducted at Keio in the period 2011-13, under the directorship of Darko Radovic. The aim of the project is to advance urban design theory related to dialectical couple density/intensity by:

(a) focusing on dialectical relationship between concrete (multiple) densities and (multiple) intensities;

(b) emphasising and addressing the complexity arising from recognition of cultural specificity of the urban;

(c) defining local assessment criteria (as measure of responsibility and responsiveness of design proposals).

The spatial focus is on two types of urban environment which commonly understood as extreme poles of intensity:

(1) busy public transport hubs, and (2) ordinary residential areas,

with their corresponding, high and low densities and diversities. Special emphasis is on possibility of representation(s) and quantifications of key qualitative aspects of the urban.

The project explores spatial and temporal nodes of urban intensification and their dialectical interrelationship, intensities associated with places, rhythms and the resultant socio-cultural uniqueness. While aiming to be comprehensive in its scope, special attention of the project will be given to detection, definition, recording, representation and, eventually, “measuring” of those intensities which are considered to be non-measurable, such as human encounter, mnemonic aspects of space/place etc.

The project focuses on the examples from Tokyo and selected Asian cities (Bangkok, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore). Those will be investigated and benchmarked against referential cases from Europe (Barcelona, Belgrade, Copenhagen, Florence) and Australia (Melbourne).