co+laboradović   one day untill the opening of  UC Berkeley building and co+labo exhibition at the  LIXIL Center for  Research of Environmental Technologies @ Memu Meadows 

21 November at Memu Meadows was a busy day, marked by intensive preparations for the opening ceremony of the new LIXIL project, the Nest We Grow which was designed by University of California Berkeley. The Nest joins previous winners of the prestigious International Student Competition for the Next Generation Sustainable House - Waseda, Keio/co+labo Radović and Harvard. Local residents and high school students had special previews, along with the representatives of LIXIL Foundation and students from Kengo Kuma and Darko Radović laboratories, who have also helped Memu Meadows staff to organise all details. 
co+labo team, which provided images that accompany this report, has set up special exhibition which explains the Barn House as the venue for continuing experimentations and improvements, with particular emphasis on subtle, qualitative nuances of life with nature. 

The event on 22 November starts at 14.30, with the Press Review. That will be followed by presentations of the competition Jury, Berkeley and Keio/co+labo teams. The event, which is co-organised by LIXIL Foundation and Shinekchiku-sha, will be concluded by discussion about the next LIXIL Competition in 2015.

co+laboradović   a ceremony at Memu Meadows on Hokkaido:  the opening of the new LIXIL  Foundation University California Berkley building + co+labo Barn House exhibition 

On 22 November 2014, at Memu Meadows in Taiki-cho, Hokkaido, LIXIL Foundation will be opening their new, Nest We Grow project. Design was based on the University of California, Berkeley winning entry at the 4th LIXIL International Student Competition in 2014 (under the guidance of Professor Dana Buntrock). 

A group of co+labo radović students is already at Memu Mewadows, setting up the exhibition about the past, present and future of our own Barn House, the winner of the 2012 competition (photos below).The co+labo Barn House exhibition will not only show some of the original material about design of the Barn House, but also provide samples of the ongoing research of its performance and ideas about the possible evolution of the Barn House over the years to come, but also collect feedback and ideas from the participants and visitors of the big LIXIL event. Over the next two days, this blog will bring brief updates about the preparations, the opening ceremony of the Nest and glimpses from our exhibition. 

   

co+laboradović   @ co+labo - Dr Mirjana Lozanovska on Kenzo Tange 

On 4 November 2014 co+labo radović hosted a lecture by Dr Mirjana Lozanovska, an Australian academic who teaches design and history/theory at the Melbourne's Deakin University. Her research interests, which cover the impact of migration, identity and architecture, and the destruction and the reinvention of the city, include a true passion for Kenzo Tange and his project for the reconstruction of Skopje, Yugoslavia (Macedonia) after the devastating earthquake in 1963. Mirjana's lecture, delivered within Darko's regular Theories of Architecture and Urban Design class, was followed by discussion which engaged a number of students and researchers and practitioners associated with co+labo.

co+laboradović   co+labo Barn House project (and more) at the Symposium  

On 1 November 2014, at the Innovation Symposium organised by the University of Tokyo's Kuma Laboratory, Darko will present the co+labo Barn House, an experimental project at Memu Meadows, Hokkaido. The presentation will reach beyond common energy balance sheets and reach the philosophy behind the concept which brings the resident researchers and horses under the same roof, explaining not only how but, more importantly, why such relationship matters.

co+laboradović  a welcome dinner for new international co+labo members 

In October 2014, four new members joined co+labo radović. A post Doctoral Fellow Jessica Pineda-Zumaran (United Nations University IAS), Keio PhD student Vedrana Ikalović, exchange PhD student Paula Jaén Capáros (ETSA Madrid) and a Double Masters Degree student Roxane Czarnobroda (ENS Lille) are adding to our cultural and disciplinary diversity, and are contributing to the strategy of an intellectually strong research laboratory. A modest izakaya dinner at one of the restaurants in Hiyoshi, joined by co+labo associates Prof Davisi Boontharm, Dr Akiyoshi Inasaka and Arch. Tetsuo Kondo, provided another opportunity to help the newcomers from Peru, Bosnia, Spain and France feel welcome and get integrated fast. Jessica's, Vedrana's and Paula's research profiles are at out Post Doc/PhD Projects page.

co+laboradović  on 28 November, Jan Gehl will talk at the Placemaking Symposium in Tokyo

co+labo strategic partner Gehl Architects, Copenhagen announces an upcoming talk in Tokyo by their founder, Jan Gehl. On 28 November, Jan will address the Placemaking Symposium, which is organised and hosted by the Japan’s Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transportation. The Symposium focuses at improving the quality of urban life and ways to make cities for people.  

In the meantime, only days after joining co+labo team at Island of Vis, David Sim, a Creative Director of Gehl Architects,  will be again with us, at Keio Yagami Campus.

co+laboradović  co+labo at the 3rd Anatomy of the Islands Symposium and Workshop - part 2

And ... on 27 September, the Anatomy of the Islands Workshop at the Island of Vis was concluded with public presentation. The presentation was introduced by a spiritus movens of the Anatomy Mr Boško Budisavljević, and attended by a number of the residents of local villages and towns of Vis and Komiža, including the Major of Vis, Mr Ivo Radica. A variety of interesting ideas across scales, ranging from strategic territorialist gestures to the smallest of elements which could make a big difference, for both those who lived and visit the spaces of inner island has been presented - including  a quirky and provocative Vine Pipeline (see that, and more, below). co+labo plans to participate in the forth Symposium and Workshop  which are scheduled for the same time, starting mid september 2015. 

Our sincere congratulations for an excellent organisation go to Boško, Eta, Manuela and many others whose efforts provided an infrastructure for success.

(more information and some really good images from Vis you can find at the Vis-à-vis blog.)

co+laboradović  co+labo at the 3rd Anatomy of the Islands Symposium and Workshop@Vis

Almost all co+labo students and several associates are taking part in the Symposium and design-reserach Workshop Anatomy of Islands which are, for the third time being held at the Croatian island of Vis (17-27.9.2014). This year, the focus is on sustainable development and the issues related to possible self-sufficiency of the villages which are facing the threats generated by banality of rapid globalisation and overdevelopment, which parallel seemingly unstoppable processes of ageing and depopulation. This year, the team of Keio academics (Darko Radović, Davisi Boontharm) was strengthened by an active participation of David Sim (Creative Director in our strategic partner, Gehl Architects, Copenhagen). Structured as a follow-up of the research Symposium, the workshop includes a number of formal and informal lectures, interaction with public and various stakeholders and addresses the multiplicity of scales, ranging from draft development strategies of the island, design of villages and architectural (re)design of selected buildings, to hands-on building - through active involvement in a stone dry-wall reconstruction workshop. Besides Keio, the team of mentors include professors Laurence Feveile (ENSA Paris-Val de Seine), Tadej Glažar (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia), Ana Jeinić and Anne Oberreitter (TU Graz), Neno Kezić (University of Split, Croatia) and generous support from Boško Budisavljević and Eta Martinis (Anatomija otoka) and LAG Škoji (Manuela Antičević).

co+laboradović   our Sano Satoshi and his EUREKA receive another prestigeous award 

Only two months after receiving the Architectural Review High Commendation (see our 1.7.2014 blog entry, below), co+labo's member since 2009 Sano Satoshi and his Eureka office have received another prestigious award. This time, the excellence of their Dragon Court Village was recognised by the Japanese Institute of Architects. The JIA Jury, chaired by Jun Igarashi, has awarded Eureka the Tokai Architectural Grand Prize for Housing Projects. Congratulations!

co+labo is also proud to announce that, after several years of active and successful participation in various laboratory and SD architecture subjects, Sano-san was appointed a Visiting Professorship at Keio University, System Design Engineering. In the forthcoming semester he will teach one of our architectural design studios.

co+laboradovićthe results of the co+labo part in the reserach project Measuring the non-Measurable was presented in Stabat Mater Lecture Hall at Archiginnasio of the University of Bologna - one of the places which best illustrate the field of our investigations - spatial quality which reaches beyond our abilities to (re)present   

In late June, Darko Radović gave a key-note address at the International Conference Past, Present and Future of Public Space. The Conference was organised by City Space Architecture and masterfully chaired and managed by Luisa Bravo and her team at the University of Bologna. The paper entitled Public-private Interface? The challenges from Japan, Asia and the times of Globalisation (see an abstract and illustrations below), was delivered in the amazing space of the Stabat Mater Hall, the illustrious history of which still resonates with the sounds of Gioacchino Rossini's music, initially performed in that very room in 1842, conducted by none else but Gaetano Donizzetti. And, that is only one, "small" segment in the history of lectures, debates and performances which are enacted in that space since 1563, when the Archiginnasio was open to public. (Measure that!)

The invitation to present co+labo research in that shrine of higher education, along with rich discussions that followed the key-note provided strong inspiration to persist with our investigations of the most precious spatial qualities across cultures and scales.

Abstract

This paper presents fragments of an investigation into the concept of urbanity across cultural boundaries. It is deliberately 'polemological' as, in de Certeau's way, it aims to open and offer to discussion a set of contentious issues, all in hope to “force theory to recognise its own limits”.

In the first segment, it presents an investigation of spatial relationships between public and private realms in Tokyo, focusing at the questions arising from the fact that Japanese language does not have a word equivalent to the term “public” - which indicates the absence of, or at least an unusual situation with the concept of public. That opens a number of themes linked to globalisation, the processes of which usually take many concepts, including that of public sphere, as universal. The ensuing set of themes make the second segment of the paper, exposing the conundrum of (dis)appearance of public, or equally dramatically that of private quality in a globalised world.

The third part of the paper does not aim conclude, but to open the discussion by presenting some of the methodological propositions, results and current attempts towards exploration of public/private interface conducted within the major research project Measuring the non-Measurable (Mn’M) at Keio University, Tokyo (2011-14). The outcomes of the project suggest that, as in life sciences, urban research needs new frameworks capable to embrace the non-reductive, methodologically inclusive study of whole systems. That means a much-needed radical departure from current reductionist orthodoxies and includes recognition and multiplication of subjectivities, an appreciation of the fullness of human multisensory experience, and celebration of diversity and difference generated by concrete social and physical contexts of each urban situation. The presentation is illustrated with examples of innovative methods tested within Mn’M which, as in Kenzo Tange’s definition of good design, sought dialectical synthesis of tradition and anti-traditionalism (eg. Debordean dérive and the latest in EEG “visualizations of thought and thinking”
).

Several slides from Darko's presentation:

     

co+laboradović    In the Search of Urban Quality Symposium completes the activities of co+labo Urban Research World Cup+Board @ the Brazil Embassy, Tokyo  

On 9 July, the co+labo fieldwork, which focused on exploring public opinion about the capability of major sporting events to contribute to making our cities better, ended with a short Symposium. André Corrêa do Lago (the Ambassador of Brazil in Japan), Heide Imai (Hosei University) and Darko Radović discussed the legacy of Tokyo 1964 and Barcelona 1992 and the progress and ambitions of Rio 2016, in the light of preparations for the Olympic Games 2020. That was followed by further discussions at the Embassy's World Cup Plaza, under the roof of Shigeru Ban Architects' pavilion. Draft results of the co+labo questionnaire provided more than enough themes, further stressing the need to advance public interest and focus on the quality of spaces and facilities for all citizens of the host city. 

co+labo continues to work on this exciting topic, making one of opening themes in our strategic partnership with Gehl Architects, Copenhagen.   

co+laboradović   an update on co+labo Urban Research Cup+Board @ the Brazil Embassy  

co+labo radović research continues within the Football World Cup Festa organised by the Embassy of Brazil in Tokyo, where we have set up our fieldwork cupboard within the Pavilion, designed specially for this occasion by Shigeru Ban Architects. Saturday 5 July was a particularly busy day, with many supporters braving the rainy Tokyo morning to celebrate another Brazil win at the World Cup - and thus helping co+labo students do a very good job, collecting public opinion about the impact of the great sporting events on public life and public space. The Japanese and Brazilian media were covering the event. The Ambassador or Brazil in Japan André Corrêa do Lago, a renowned connoisseur of architecture and the curator of the Brazilian Pavilion at the Biennial di Venezia 2014 took time for a chat with co+labo students. 
What we are doing there is, of course, only a part of the much larger event. The Embassy has released a programme of activities for the next several events - one of which is co-organised by co+labo radović (highlighted red, below). If you have time - please join us there.
- July 7^th, 18.00 “Modernity as Tradition”, informal talk by Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago on Brazilian architecture + GA Houses launch.

 Ambassador Corrêa do Lago acted as curator for the Brazilian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2014. He will share his views on the singularity of Brazilian architectural identity, that does not build on ancient traditions, but rather creates a widely recognizable modern architecture that is THE Brazilian architecture. Following the talk, GA Houses will present its two editions featuring contemporary Brazilian residences.
- July 9^th, 12.00 “Wasteland” (“Lixo Extraordinário”), documentary, directed by Lucy Walker.

WASTE LAND follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of “catadores”—self-designated pickers of recyclable materials.
- July 9^th, 18.00 “Global Sport Events and Quality of Urban Space – from Brazil World Cup 2014, to Rio Olympics 2016 and Tokyo Olympics 2020” Seminar, moderated by Professor Darko Radovic (Keio University).

Global sporting events, such as Football World Cup and the Olympic Games, invigorate discussion about huge number of issues. The impact of those events is enormous and their capacity to provide lasting legacy is widely recognised as one of key drivers to facilitate change. In those discussions, everyone speaks about architecture, about the size, the cost, the aesthetics of buildings but, when it comes to true legacy of those events, the building are only part of what they produce. The longest lasting quality is that which addresses public interest and improves the lives of everyone. 

The discussion will be structured taking into account the opinions of the visitors of the  World Cup Pavilion (collected by Keio University co+labo radović).
- July 11^th, 17h00 "Brazil: Designers and brands to watch” presentation, by Designer Mateus Bagatini, Questto|Nó, a Innovation and Design office based in São Paulo Brazil.

co+laboradović   co+labo Urban Research World Cup+Board @ the Brazil Embassy, Tokyo 

As we informed the readers of our blog before, following the success of co+labo radović research pavilion in Jiyugaoka, we were invited to join the Football World Cup Festa organised by the Embassy of Brazil in Tokyo. We have set up our fieldwork cupboard within the Embassy's World Cup Pavilion, designed specially for this occasion by Shigeru Ban Architects and, over the next week, co+labo will be collecting opinions about the transformative capacity of global sporting events to make our cities better. The data will be used to open a discussion evening, co-organised by the Embassy and co+labo radović on 9 July, under the title  Global Sport Events and Quality of Urban Space: from the Brazil World Cup 2014, to Rio Olympics 2016 and Olympic Tokyo 2020.

If you are in Tokyo these days, please visit the Embassy Pavilion, enjoy the World Cup at that piece of Brazilian territory in Japan and help our research by giving us your opinion and ideas about those themes. If you are around on Wednesday evening, call the Embassy to book your place in discussion room and - see you there!