Some things do change, and sone do not, yet: co+labo Competition team advances work towards submission, while another Webcam snapshot of Davisi and Darko in Split show that there is still nothing new in the West.
co+labo is an Architecture and Urban Design Laboratory at Keio University, Tokyo. It is based in the Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Systems Design Engineering co+labo is involved in education, research and design-research in the fields of architecture and urban design.
24 April 2020
19 April 2020
Looking at these two images (above and below), one could conclude that, since our previous entry, nothing has changed. These photos depict exactly what was on the other two, which were posted exactly two weeks ago (further down). Both then and now, Darko and Davisi were captured on WebCam, standing at an empty Riva in Split, and sending their regards to co+labo, as co+labo design competition team works online, on their current competition project. While on these photos all looks the same, in reality everything that we used to take for granted in our everyday lives has been altered. That, most dramatically, applies to some of the key issues related to our central research focus, the themes associated with public and public-like places across cultures. This uncanny condition, in which seemingly "nothing happens" while everything around us changes rapidly, will be one of the key co+labo and co+re themes in 2020-21, and beyond.
That fine-tuning of our research focus will start in coordination with City Space Architecture (CSA), organisation based in Bologna, which brings together an international circle of academics, practitioners, activists and others interested in public space, and publishes high quality Journal of Public Space. In responses to these unusual times, the CSA core team members have (in collaboration with Chinese University of Hong Kong) initiated new project entitled "2020: A Year without Public Space under the COVID-19 Pandemic“. As from this year Darko co-Chairs the CSA Advisory Board of Public Space Experts, he will coordinate co+labo efforts with that important initiative. We will start by helping to identify the key questions arising from this moment which, among other consequences, enforces an unusual level of global uniformity.
As the crises of this magnitude have the capacity to initiate paradigm shift, Darko and co+labo radović will insist on radical, critical and creative perspectives, and strategies of response. We need to be aware that the Coronavirus has not accelerated processes of globalisation (turning us all to Zoom, Webex and similar tools which, as safe and as sterile they are, question all that public sphere, realm, space are and should be about, everything that we take for granted when exercising our right to the city). Not only that this virus has not accelerated globalisation, but the truth is precisely opposite: the globalisation itself made this pandemic possible. Having "chosen" a particular, environmentally and culturally unsustainable kind of development, as part of an overall spectacularization of our daily lives, we have also globalised the virus. An epidemic became - a pandemic.
Always positive, co+labo opening hypothesis is that, in a fashion similar to the emergence of this pandemic, some minor, local, infraordinary practices orientated towards creating a better world might gain power and spread globally. (Of course, that is an utopian thought. Minor practices seem to have a slim chance, they only might succeed. But - it is worth trying.)
That is a co+labo way.
Always positive, co+labo opening hypothesis is that, in a fashion similar to the emergence of this pandemic, some minor, local, infraordinary practices orientated towards creating a better world might gain power and spread globally. (Of course, that is an utopian thought. Minor practices seem to have a slim chance, they only might succeed. But - it is worth trying.)
That is a co+labo way.
04 April 2020
co+labo radović locked outside the Campus, at two continents, co+labo operates full steam
co+labo is an international laboratory. Even at the times when all of our activities were conducted in the laboratory at Keio Yagami Campus, due its general structure, make-up and members we have simultaneously operated across at least a couple of continents. co+labo was designed to, precisely in
tune with the old adage, think globally while always acting locally, operating
with the heightened sensibility to, and responsibility towards the exact places.
In these crazy times of Corona Virus pandemic, we have found ourselves
literally stretched across two continents – Asia and Europe. Amidst an academic
trip, which included lectures and an exhibition at the University of Ljubljana
(images at the bottom of this post) and discussions about the planned September
workshop, Darko and Davisi have found themselves stranded in Split (above the title: captured by public WebCam at an empty Riva, the main seafront promenade; above: equally, eerily empty but irresistibly beautiful Peristil of Diocletian Palace
and the nearby Fruit Square/Voćni Trg).
At the same time, the rest of co+labo
members are in Tokyo. With start of the new school year postponed and Keio Campuses closed, all our activities have
moved online. Despite these extreme conditions, co+labo operates (almost) as
planned. As we do in the Spring semester, these days the key focus is on design. Under
the guidance of our honorary guest Bratislav Gaković (award-winning architect
from Belgrade, with whom we have already collaborated at an exciting workshop in Manchester, in 2012), new co+labo Research Fellow Rafael Balboa, and Sano Satoshi
and Darko Radović, almost all members are involved in an international
professional competition. How does all that work? See above: at the ZOOM screenshot, left to right, in the first row are Rafa, Shigemura, Braca, Mori; in the second row: Oguri,
Nishibori, Kawamoto, Sasaki; in the third third row: Sano, Yang, Iwata. Next to them, on the right side
are two lonely co+labo PhD candidates, Sanja pondering over some important issues
related to the street art, and Ivan - adding final touches to his Thesis. Darko’s
(a bit less tech and a bit more messy) coordination table is - next to the (empty) Fruit Square.
Below ... Darko's lecture and Davisi's exhibition and lecture at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Ljubljana - where they are Visiting Professors 2019-20.
17 February 2020
After all exams and presentations, the school year ends with the announcement of the new school year. This year, the party at one of our fairly regular places in Shibuya included, besides Darko, Davisi and David Sim, Akitaka Suzuki + Amami Iwata + Ayako Ishikawa (Tsuruse) + Ayumu Magome + Hiroo Maruyama + Ivan Filipović + Ken Akatsuka + Mayuko Mikogami + Mei Morimoto + Muxi Yang + Satoshi Sano + Shinichi Nishibori + Shun Kato + Takuomi Saikawa + Takashi Takei + Taku Ikeda + Tomotake Miyagaki + Xuan Yang + Yuta Sato + Yurino Oguri.
01 February 2020
The end of the school year was busy as always. Two new members (officially joining us from April 2020 (but have already become part of co+labo life), Yurino Oguri and Reina Sasaki have defended their final 3rd year Design Projects (above).co+labo radović co+labo members finishing 2019-20 with good Design&Research projects
Yuki Mori, Muxi Yang and Koki Suzuki (below with Darko) have graduated with presentations of their Research Theses ...
The final touches were defences of Mei-san's investigation of “The Relationship Between Shop Facades and Affordances in Tokyo - A Case Study of Jiyugaoka, with Comparisons with Stockholm”, and Shohei-san, “Adaptive reuse of World Cup Legacy and its potential environmental improvement in the megacity – A Case study of a football project in New York”.
Equally successful were Xuan Yang and her in depth analysis and creative presentation of “Spatial Quality and Place Attachment
- A Case Study of Izakaya Culture in Central Jiyugaoka”, Yumi Ishii, and “The Quality of Pedestrian Spaces
along Urban Canals - A Case Study of Meguro River”, Shun Kato's “Spatial Analysis of Public access in Coastal City - A Case Study of Fujisawa
and Kamakura Area", Norimi Kinoshita's meticulous inquiry into “The impacts of urban
morphology and intensity of use on the quality of urban life - A Case Study of
railway station hiroba spaces of Tokyo” and Masahito Motoyama's “The POPS in High-Dense Urban
Areas, and Their Capacity to Contribute to Public Interest - A Case Study of Daimaruyu Leading Business
City”.
Warm co+labo congratulations and best wishes for their forthcoming professional lives.
co+labo radović co+labo's Takasu Yukie completed her MastersThesis@AA in London
Yukie Takasu has completed her Masters Thesis at Architectural Association in London, and will be returning to co+labo her ambitious plan with another Masters Degree at Keio University. In this brief summary she explains her AA project entitled Multi-level Ecology (see images below) as "an exploration of multi-leveled open spaces in high-density urban environments. The lack of public spaces in contemporary cities is a pressing concern as it correlates to physical and mental illnesses and social isolation. An alternate circulation system at higher levels is proposed to enhance urban connections where the population density increases vertically. The research aims to incorporate more than the provision of spaces, by enhancing programmatic variation, where once isolated institutions - residential, commercial, office, leisure, now overlap through these spaces, creating multi-layered opportunities in the urban area. Exploring varying sets of urban conditions, this research proposes an integrated response that generates spatially diverse public spaces.
The work is contextualized in the urban area of Sai Ying Pun located in the city of Hong Kong. The high-rise high-density urban fabric of the city is characteristic of the issues of social deprivation. Additionally, the research deals with seasonal climatic conditions and local hydrological problems of self-sustainability and flooding that are pertinent to Hong Kong.
A multi-scalar approach incorporated in addressing the problem at the urban as well as the local scale establishes the need to accommodate a layered network of recreation, culture, and wellness."
A multi-scalar approach incorporated in addressing the problem at the urban as well as the local scale establishes the need to accommodate a layered network of recreation, culture, and wellness."
Congratulations to Yukie-san and - a warm welcome home to our co+labo senpai.
06 January 2020
With pleasure we are taking one news from the closing days of 2019 into 2020. co+labo's Mei Morimoto has completed her Masters Degree at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, School of Architecture, which was awarded to her in the ceremony that was held in her favourite building, the Stockholm City Hall (above). She is now preparing defence of the second part of her Double Degree, which is schedules for early February at Keio. She will be joined by our Shohei Yamashita, who also needs to complete his Double Degree - with Politecnico di Milano. Sincere co+labo congratulations!
01 January 2020
27 December 2019
21 December 2019
The Theme of the competition was a multi-generation and multi-national housing complex. This proposal, entitled 部屋も歩けば人にあう - "When the room walks, it meets people". Mori-san explains how they "proposed movable small rooms for each of the houses which make it possible for people to post their daily life like SNS. The rooms personified by their user would help interactions and span difficulties arising from diverse cultural backgrounds, with spaces capturing diverse characters of their residents. This movable rooms would also be able to venture into urban space, seeking the best space to stay. That would help discover the capacity of vacant urban spaces, such as parkings, streets and parks for acquiring new quality, in addition to multi-generational and multinational usage of these wandering rooms." The project will be published in the 2020 February issue of "Shinkenchiku" magazine.
Warm co+labo congratulations to Iwata-San and Mori-san!
The annual co+labo "forget-the-year-party" farewelled the 2019. Although "forget the year" is a literal translation of bōnenkai" the year behind us was certainly not a year that will, of should be easily forgotten. The list of colaboradović.blogspot entries for 2019 includes successful PhD theses defences and starts of new projects, hosting guest lecturers and delivering guest lectures at other places in Tokyo and abroad, organisation and participation in symposia and conferences in Japan and overseas, double-degrees and international workshops and the very important Comprehensive Design Workshop, which ended up with a highly successful exhibition, symposium and lectures - in organisation and delivery of which co+labo was - Keio Architecture. In 2019 we have made the strongest collective push towards helping the oldest university in japan establish a discrete graduate programme in architecture and urbanism. All those activities and achievements add up (in our collaborative + ++ + ++++ + manner) to a great year, which should never be forgotten 2019. The bōnenkai was also an opportunity for everyone to meet our new two members - Yurino Oguri and Reiya Sasaki (who, in bōnenkai tradition, helped make excellent food for their senpai). Welcome+頑張ってください!
Sincere co+labo thank you go to all of our colleagues, friends and associates in Japan, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Serbia, UK, Sweden, Australia, Ecuador, Thailand, Serbia, Spain who have variously joined in, helped share and deliver those projects and whom we are planning new projects for the years to come.
The Jury explained the reasons for choosing Aki, Nikoló and Enrico's design-research project, summarising how " the work is characterised by highly unique theme, and it achieved an uncommon maturity and design complexity. In particular, the strong visual/graphical communication ability and analysis on its production and realisation aspects are underlined."
co+labo congratulations to Aki, Nikoló and Enrico and their supervisors, including Gabriele Masera (at the selfie below).
27 November 2019
co+labo radović co+labo research projects accelerate towards Masters+UG completion
As work on various co+labo research projects accelerates towards final presentations at the end of the school year, Keio captures the moment by taking official photos of all research laboratories. Above is co+labo, as of 26.11.2019. Top row: Jumpei Kawamoto, Sanja Žonja, Ivan Filipović, Xuan Yang; Mid row: Yuki Mori, Yumi Ishii, Muxi Yang, Nikolaj Salaj, Paolo Turčić, Amami Iwata; First row: Shinichi Nishibori, Koki Suzuki, Masahito Motoyama, Darko Radović, Norimi Kinoshita, Shun Kato. Absent (in action elsewhere) were: Satoshi Sano, Mei Morimoto, Shohey Yamashita and Hiroki Shigemura.
Besides projects at PhD level (Sanja Ronja, Satoshi Sano and Ivan Filipović), current individual projects at co+labo are:
Masters Theses 2019
Yumi Ishii, The quality of pedestrian spaces
along urban waterways - A Case Study of Meguro River
Shun Kato, The role of tourism in sustainable
urban development of urban coastal areas - A Case Study of Fujisawa
Norimi Kinoshita, The impact of urban
morphology and intensity of use on the quality of urban life
- A Case Study of railway station hiroba spaces of Tokyo
Mei Morimoto, The relationship between shop
facades and affordances in Tokyo - A Case Study of Jiyugaoka, with partial
comparisons with Stockholm
Masahito Motoyama, The POPS in
high-density urban areas, and their capacity to contribute to public
interest - A Case Study of Daimaruyu
Shohei Yamashita, Adaptive reuse of World Cup
Legacy and its potential environmental improvement in the megacity -
A Case Study of a football stadium project in New York
Xuan Yang, Spatial quality and place attachment
- A Case Study of izakaya culture in
central Jiyugaoka
Undergraduate Theses 2019
Koki Suzuki, The Creation of Marine
Atmosphere in the Waterfront - A Case Study in Minato Mirai
Yuki Mori, The Morphology of Houses on Saka-michi in
Central Tokyo
Muxi Yang, Impacts of Chinese elements on spatial experience
of Yokohama Chinatown
Masters 1 Theses - due 2020
Jumpei Kawamoto, Vacant Land in Minato-ku and its Spatial Composition
Shinichi Nishibori, The social potential of urban canals - typological
analysis of canals in Kanda area
Masters Exchange
Matej Kranjc, Tokyo and its
Preparedness for Disasters: The places to escape to
Nikolaj Salaj, Urban
Voids and Public Realm in Tokyo
Paolo Turčić, Mediterranean
Piazza and (Non)Equivalent Social Places in Japan
16 November 2019
In response to that
request, Xuang, Shoei and Yuki-san proposed a comprehensive green
plain for the site of Mappano, as the future heart of revitalization process, which
would be generated by integration of new, local sporting facilities into the
daily life of the nearby city of Torino. Their project proposed reinterpretation
of old civilizing processes, exploring how the sports culture could become a
driving force for broader urban regeneration. In their vision, the sports will
not offer only competitive and spectator-oriented games for passive audiences, but
provide incentives for healthy and active lifestyles to the locals. Their arena
blends into the landscape, evoking the forms of the Alps in the background. Its
permeable borders both define discrete activity zones and keep them integrated,
stimulating a variety of possible interactions between sport, recreation and
other activities to emerge - which, significantly, include urban agriculture and farming. At architectural scale, the proposed permeable polycarbonate
roof keeps the interior and natural environment directly related, while enabling
substantial energy savings. In that way, the arena promises to become a place where
various urban activities will melt and produce quality that reaches beyond
simple local cultivation.
A truly outstanding international
Jury included Peter Eisenman, Hitoshi Abe, Gianluca Mazza, Giuseppe Ferrero,
Giovanni Palazzi, Dang Qun, Andrea
Maffei.
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