co+labo radović    Theory and Practice of Urbanity and co+labo way at Politecnico di Milano  
(an extended report)

For the second year in a row, Darko Radović was invited to teach at Politecnico di Milano. After the fun of MIAW (Milano International Architecture Week 2016), He was asked to deliver, as a Visiting Professor at Dipartimento di Architettura e Studi Urbani - DAStU, an intensive Contemporary City Course, a full semester of workload for himself and the students within one month. Darko chose to bring a completely new version of his Theory and Practice of Urbanity (TPU, the  original of which, dating back to 2007, is still accessible at the web pages of the University of Melbourne - here). The overarching aim of TPU 2017 was to explore the potential of cross-cultural comparisons, to critically address the issues arising from cultural specificity and difference in and of urbanity, the (im)possibility of translation and equivalence, bringing to one of the best European Universities some of the work conducted and developed at Keio, in co+labo radović. 

The Course, which unfolded at Leonardo da Vinci Campus from 15 March to 9 April 2017, consisted of two intertwining programmes: the lectures (delivered in a variety of formats by Darko and his guests) and the “workshop” (a fieldwork component inspired by Debordean dérive and self-managed by the students), which included heuristic drifts into concrete urban realities of Milano and follow-up discussions and conceptual thinking about its likely and desirable urban futures.

Darko has introduced TPU through an overview (fully presented, with a reason, he says, in Typewriter font) by referring to 

several important thinkers and key ideas which inform and shape his current research and, in particular, this particular lecture series. The opening six of his intellectual accomplices were (alphabetically organised) Roland Barthes, Bogdan Bogdanović, Guy Debord, Felix Guattari, François Jullian, Henri Lefebvre and Jean-Luc Nancy, serving the smördâsbord of ideas (below) to begin with.

The guest lecturers were asked to focus at the particular, freely choosing the theme which best introduces "their" city (for the majority, “My Milano”). The tenor of their talks, which last until the very end of TPU 2017, ranged from purely autobiographical sketches to academic discussions, weaving the personal and anecdotal together with historical facts and theoretical concepts. The formats of delivery varied accordingly, from the strings of short cameos to standard academic presentations. This TPU thread sought to contribute to the creation of a relaxed but, at the same time, firm, well-informed, creative and critical atmosphere within the class.

The first of TPU 2017 guests was a "secret" one - Kazuyo Sejima, who is nowadays also a Professor at DAStU. Her unannounced presentation hinted at Darko's hope that TPU will keep on generating pleasant surprises. Sejima-san's talk about her projects included the new Bocconi University Campus (currently under construction) in Milano. 

Her lecture  was followed by Professor Davisi Boontharm (Meiji University and Keio) and the story of her city, Bangkok, by focusing at what makes the neighbourhood and at the importance of childhood memories in definition of both the community and the self. 
Within TPU, Davisi also delivered lectures on her fieldwork annotations "sketch and Script" method, latest research on urban requalification, and presented her current artwork, as it was being produced in Milano (see below).

The next guest speaker was Dr Mario Paris, also a TPU 2017 Teaching Assistant. Mario's Milano is a city of elastic boundaries, which tempts one to agree with Massimo Cacciari that "There is no city, only urban ways of life." Mario used the Atlante dei Classici Padani to bring in a series of  themes which make "a real Milano", one which escapes the preconceived imagery of Italian centrality and urbanity, taking the audience along the edges of the ubiquitous non-place highways, all the way to the realities of one of the most recent mega shopping malls in the region.

Professor Gabriele Pasqui, a native of Milano and Director of DAStU, started with an "academic introduction", using maps to explain and problematise the past and present development projects, trends and dilemmas of Milano. He brought the audience into the actual fabric of the city by introducing nine houses and neighbourhoods in which he lived in his city.

Professor Antonio Longo, another true Milanese and renown urbanist, introduced the fine fabric of surrealist imaginary explorations of Milano, as see by various artists and other creative residents and visitors of this city (ranging from Mario Sironi and Vittorio da Sica, via Emir Kusturica to Savino and Savinio), overlaying them with ideas and plans about desirable development directions for the Lombardian capital (by the likes of Dino Buzzati, Giancarlo de Carlo, Boeri and, most recently Ferraresi et al., to some of which Professor Longo himself contributed).

The next in the TPU "My Milano" series was Professor Gabriele Masera, from Politecnico's ABC programme. Two years ago, Gabriele was a visiting professor at co+labo and Keio Yagami Campus. That enabled him  to make interesting comparisons between urban cultures of Milano and Tokyo, leading to an erudite overview of complex development of Milano, from the earliest traces of Celtic settlements to the latest ideas about the future of the fascinating city. What emerged was the city much more marked by destruction and the Fenix-like moments of radical remaking and reinvention (even of its "natural" features). Precisely that defines a critical difference between the Lombardian capital and the majority of other Italian urban centres, the identities of which tend to be grounded in continuity and lasting of their physical structures.

On 31 March, TPU hosted two guest speakers. The first to speak was Professor Bertrando Bonfantini (a coordinator of the Contemporary City Programme at Politecnico) who introduced his Milano as a series of itineraries and narratives, and as a city which needs to further advance through introduction of the new "narrative infrastructures" for future urbanity. His focus at four major urban projects, Santa Giulia, Portillo Nord, City Life and Porta Nuova brought together the stories about development ambitions in the recent history of Milano, their various failures and successes, discrepancies between what was planned and designed, and what was realised - where accidents often brought gain, rather than any qualitative loss. Combining his expert views and well argued opinions, Bertrando emphasised how Porta Nuova project, for instance, with all of its controversies, is one of the projects with special potential to contribute to the broader public good, precisely because it stitches together the string of diverse parts of Milano in one, continuous narrative of pedestrian scale.

The second guest speaker was a young researcher from Barcelona, Gloria Serra Coch. She spoke about Barcelona of a native, an insider for whom living in the great Catalan capital, a must-visit tourist node of global fame, entails strong sense of living in a village, surrounded mainly by familiar places and faces. Over time, such personal, finely knit networks expand to form patchworks of lived fragments, never acquiring a sense of systematic whole. Gloria ended her talk by tabling a number of profound questions, including the provocation which Barcelona itself so forcefully puts forward: have we "condemned functionalism to fast"? Or, in other words, isn't the Cerda's plan, a perfect example of the much maligned, top-down imposition of strong geometrical layout and order, an example of resilient urban structure which works extremely well, one which keeps on reinventing itself while, somehow, keeping that strong, established identity?!

Professor Marco Imperadori's Milano was the one of recent the EXPO 2015, and pavilions - Save the Children, Island Countries, UK and Japan - to conception, design and construction of which he and his team have variously contributed. Marco's special emphasis was on the legacy of that event, stressing how his interest is not only in history and present of Milano but equally for what is coming up, as Milano always was and it remains an "impermanent city, always changing."

Somewhat similar was the focus on Bologna, chosen by Luisa Bravo and Simone Garagnani, partners in life and partners in research. They presented some of their investigations in the city where they live. The lens of their research pulls together Luisa's urban design sensibility and Simone's passion for technology and complex representations of spatial quality. They are both closely associated with co+laboradović, and their presentation, of projects such as "Upgrading Bologna 2.0", "Le Bologne Possibili", "Mapping Urban Perception", closely resonated with some of Darko's own points within TPU.

Mina Akhavan, one of Teaching Assistants of TPU 2017, talked about her Teheran. In explaining "The Paradox City of Cities", Mina delved into some of the stark contrasts of the Iranian capital juxtapositions of the mountain and the flat Teheran, the Teheran of the rich and the Teheran of the poor, the city of Architecture and "the city of no-Architetcure", the city of green infrastructure and that of grey infrastructure, of Fordism and of post-Fordism, religion and irreligion, all together forming a puzzling and fascinating kaleidoscope, another kind of urbanity and otherness, into TPU 2017.  

The final guest lecturer in TPU 2017 was Leonardo Zuccaro Marchi, who teaches urbanism at TU Delft. He made a special visit to Milano only to deliver his talk on "The Heart of the City - Milano Killing the Modern". Leonardo's erudite cross-referencing of concrete realities of Milano and some of the key events in the history of the Modern Movement, with special emphasis on CIAM 1951 and the concepts of the hollow core, social presence and continuity provided a fitting ending to the series of the rich guest programme of TPU.

TPU was designed to end, but not conclude. The aim of the course was to help the participants to take off, to elevate intellectual aspects of their discourse about the cities and to enhance the capacity to think critically and creatively. A major contribution to that and contribution to an ending which helps the course exceed itself was the exhibition by Davisi Boontharm, "Unfolding Navigli". Davisi presented several (un)foldable notebooks, with sketches from the reemerging canals of Milano, in which she beautifully combines the talent and sensibility of a mature artist with keen and experienced focus and logic of an urban researcher, to achieve a provocative and open-ended synthesis of both aesthetic and documentary quality, opening the spaces which she chose as of special significance in the city to new readings.

In order to further stress the non finito character of TPU (first hinted upon in design of the limited-edition stamp) the very last session, held on Saturday 8 April 2017, was just another TPU "horizontal exhibition", a moment to step back and contemplate together the rich diversity of qualities of Milano, as seen by the TPU 2017  students. ... That was TPU 2017.

co+labo radović     a success of co+labo Graduates at  the Japanese student competitions    
One of the "secrets" behind the globally recognised, undeniable excellence of Japanese architecture seems to be in a very broad and carefully nurtured culture of architecture in this society. That includes a very rich tradition of design competitions for students at all levels of studies of architecture and urban design. The most important competitions are at the end of the year, when recent graduates offer their work to judgement by the prestigious juries at several highly respected events. Only taking part in those contests matters. Being shortlisted, commended or receiving an award there often translates into a clear hint to the future employers and watchers of the emerging talents, a sign that a particular young person might be bringing something special to the scene of Japanese design. 

co+labo supports efforts of its students to compare and compete with their colleagues from other schools and universities in Japan. During the demanding process of preparation, exhibition, selection and jury discussions, all of the participants learn. So far, co+labo students had a fair share of recognition in those arenas of excellence, both nationally and internationally. But 2016 was, probably, the best year so far. The 2016 generation of co+labo SD Graduates (our new Masters students) Onishi Keitaro, Yamashita Shohei, Takasu Yukie, Kobayashi Daisuke, Mikogami Mayuko and Morimoto Mei all took part in those demanding competitions, coming back with an excellent success. 

Keitaro Onishi won the most prestigious accolades, pictured with Yamashita Shohei (above) and some of their awards.

Onishi-san's work, a moment of glory at the award ceremony (above) and his and Yamashita-san's projects (below).

Onishi's presentation and Kobayashi-san's shortlisted project (above). Takasu-san and her highly commended work,below

Project by Mayuko Mikogami (above) which, after winning the Best Keio SD Graduation Design Project Award in 2016, received high recognition by an external competition jury, and a subtle design sensibility of Morimoto-san (below).

co+labo radović   in April, co+labo presents two new exhibitions and a research Symposium 
In April at the Keio University Hiyoshi Campus, co+laboradović will present two exhibitions and one Symposium. 
Keio Architecture exhibition, which is co-organised by the students of co+labo, Kishimoto Lab and Almazán Lab,  will bring together and celebrate the best design and research-design achievements of the students of architecture and urban design at the Keio's Yagami Campus in 2016. 
Bruno Taut Exhibition brings back to Tokyo the exhibits from the exhibition which we have co+organised with Istututo Universitario di Architettura, Venezia in September 2016 - enriched by some new materials and video recordings from the Symposium held in Venice. The Exhibition will be accompanied by an international research Symposium. 

If you are in Tokyo in the period 26 April - 5 May, please join us at the Raiosha Centre, Hiyoshi. While you are going to be able to find updates about these events at this blog, if you need any further information please do not hesitate to contact the organising committee by e-mail, by writing to co+labo Technical Secretary and PhD researcher Mr Sano Satoshi.

co+labo radović   a lecture on "the co+labo way" of research+design at Politecnico di Milano 
Darko Radović was invited to join Politecnico di Milano in the capacity of a Visiting Professor, and deliver an intensive course in Contemporary City (to be presented as a separate entry on this blog). Asked to give a separate, public lecture at the Leonardo da Vinci Campus, Darko decided to introduce The co+labo way: in the search of spatial quality. 

The lecture introduced co+labo as a rare example of an architecture and urban design Research Laboratory at the major Japanese University, with a stranger at its helm and how, as a truly cross-cultural environment, co+labo opens new questions and attempts to address the topics such as globalisation, cultural and disciplinary otherness, boundaries, territories, exclusion and inclusion, in architecture and urban design. The special emphasis was at the plus in our name, the binding, collaborative symbol from the co+labo logo. He repeated how Lefebvre wrote about "the dignity of bearing the + sign, that of joy, happiness, enjoyment, of sensuality - the sign of life". This lecture at Politecnico di Milano, which was among other attended by co+labo's Double Degree students in Milano, Suzuki Akitaka and Magome Ayumu, along with our past (Nicolo Panzeri, Enrico Sterle) and current (Andrea Bonaiti and Luca Sironi) visiting students from Politecnico, the story of co+labo provided framework for discussion of the philosophy behind our way of education, research and design-research in the fields of architecture and urban design.

co+labo radović      the end of the school year party + graduation of nine co+labo members    
(the contents of this post to be uploaded shortly)

co+labo radović  co+labo visits Kamakura to attend an exciting seminar on minka houses  

On 11 January, co+labo hopped on a train bound to Kamakura. The sunny weather was the perfect backdrop for a special occasion, a seminar on Japanese farmhouses, called minka. Our hosts were Yoshihiro Takishita, a pioneer architect and collector, founding president of The Association for the Preservation of Old Japanese Farmhouses (APOJF), and Sumiko Enbutsu and her husband, members of APOJF.

We were welcomed with a video and presentation about the work of Takishita-san: being born in Gifu Prefecture, he started dismantling, moving and refurbishing wooden minka houses in the 1960s, and he has become an authority in adapting Japanese farmhouses to modern living standards (e.g. featuring floor-heating, state-of-the-art appliances etc.), while retaining the majesty and calmness of their ample interior spaces. On top of one of Kamakura's hills, he has assembled a group of minka houses (transported from Gifu Prefecture), which we had the privilege to visit. It was a chance to directly experience the feeling of living in a centuries-old wooden structure, with impressive vistas to Sagami Bay.

The minka houses we visited had another unique feature: they were adorned with magnificent folding screens (byōbu), porcelain and a collection of wooden structural joints used in minka carpentry. At this point, Takishita-san's experience as an architect merged with the one as a collector, and we left Kamakura with a much deeper understanding of the meaning and value of Japanese farmhouses, screens and porcelain.

co+labo thanks Takishita-san and Enbutsu-san for this wonderful experience, which proves that contemporary living in minka houses can be not only possible, but comfortable and beautiful too.

The visit was organised by co+labo PhD student Marco Capitanio, who also prepared this report. All photos were taken by Mr Enbutsu.

co+labo radović   bonenkai 忘年会, end of the year party completes a very successful 2O16   

The party, which was attended by almost all current co+labo students and some of our distinguished alumni and associates, also provided us with good opportunity to welcome new members: Alice Covatta (post-Doctoral Fellow from Venice), Ana Medina (exchange PhD student from UP Madrid+Goldsminty, London) and six newly selected undergraduate students - Ishii-san, Kinoshita-san, Samejima-san, Kato-san, Motoyama-san and Wang Yijia, who have, following the bonenkai tradition, prepared delicious nabe for all of us.

Get a glimpse into the compressed co+labo 2016 experience below, just under co+labo Christmas card, made in Milano by Politecnico/co+labo exchange+double degree students, Aki Suzuki, Ayumu Magome, Nicolò Panzeri and Enrico Sterle

co+labo radović      co+labo + partners participate at the 17th Keio Techno Mall exhibition      

On 16 December at Tokyo International Forum Keio University held its 17th annual exhibition - Keio Techno Mall. 
co+labo radović took part in this exhibition by presenting the results and potential of our investigations into the quality of space and spatial experiences across scales, advanced through collaboration with Keio Mitsukura Laboratory + Yakoh Laboratory + Simone Garagnani from University of Bologna + Gehl/Copenhagen + ... + ... + ... 
co+labo exhibition stand included our urban research cupboard, with a number of examples of the ways in which we conduct investigations of the urban and our publications, enriched by the latest in EEG technology developed by Mitsukura Lab, eye-tracking equipment advanced in Yakoh Laboratory and experiments in multi scale visualisation explored by Professor Garagnani. The discussions pointed at the promising synthesis of these efforts.

The exhibition was attended by interested academic and corporate partners of Keio University and co+labo. Our special visitors included Kengo Kuma,  representatives of Urban Renaissance Agency and potential future partners.

co+laboradović co+labo's Sotaro Miyatake to speak@Sotonoba public space-public life panel  

After his successful internship at Gehl's office in Copenhagen and involvement in regular co+labo urban research and design activities in Tokyo and abroad, Sotaro Miyatake, co+labo's final year Master student, was invited to speak at Sotonoba, a web-media event which specialises in discussions about the quality of public space. Sotonoba brings together urban planners, academics, writers, street performers and others interested in thinking and making better cities. 
This invitation is a great recognition of Miyatake's and broader co+labo efforts to, using immense energies and potential of urban life of Tokyo and the momentum of the forthcoming Olympic Games, help advance the quality of public life and public space in this city. 
The Sotonoba event will be held on Friday, 9 December, from 19.00, at Bird discussion space in Daikanyama.

co+labo radović  co+labo fieldwork with Gehl's, Urban Renaissance and Open_A in Kanda - 3  

After a week of intensive work, urban research workshop, which was coordinated by Urban Renaissance Agency and directed by Gehl's David Sim in Kanda precinct of Tokyo, is over. co+labo students took part in the fieldwork, discussed and helped develop ideas for better future of this part of Tokyo, contributing to a real-life project and gaining valuable knowledge and experience. 

co+labo pavilion, our urban research cupboard, was carefully packed up and returned to Keio Yagami Campus, to get prepared for the next outing. which is scheduled for December.

co+laboradović  Keio's Japanese Pavilion/Tea House - a Sleeping Beauty at the Island of Vis   

Boško Budisavljević, founding President of the Anatomy of Islands organisation e-mailed us a series of photos showing calm beauty of the dormant Japanese Tea House. The Pavilion was designed and built by Keio's Kobayashi Lab and co+laboradović, with generous support of Politecnico di Milano's ABC programme, University of Ljubljana, local authorities and various stakeholders from the beautiful, 2,500 thousand years old town of Vis.

The Pavilion was constructed during the final, fifth Anatomy of Islands Symposium and Workshop in September 2016, as Keio's thank you for five years of hospitality and as a token of hope for the proposed Smart Island Communities project.  
The shutters of the Tea House are temporarily closed, protecting its fragile openings and interior. It waits for better weather and more activities directed towards better thinking, making and living of the island of Vis. In 2016, the Anatomy Workshop used moving images to present some fresh ideas about such, different, more sustainable and better future.

Click here to can join the Anatomy cinema audience and watch the movies.

co+laboradović  co+labo fieldwork with Gehl's, Urban Renaissance and Open_A in Kanda - 2 

And, on Friday 25.11. nice weather was back and co+labo pavilion, our popular urban research"cupboard", was rolled out to the streets of Kanda, and students got involved in further data collection by engaging the locals and the passers-by ... 

co+laboradović  co+labo fieldwork with Gehl's, Urban Renaissance and Open_A in Kanda - 1 

This week co+labo joined our strategic partner's Gehl from Copenhagen, in an urban research workshop in Kanda, Tokyo. As on a number of occasions before, co+labo students are involved in data collection and urban design exercises headed by our associate and Gehl's Creative Director David Sim, which aim to both improve the  quality of open spaces in that part of Tokyo and help raise general awareness about the importance of public space in urban life. This workshop is hosted and organised by Urban Renaissance Agency, and conducted in collaboration with Open-A Ltd. This is just an opening notice. After the initial two days and an interruption by Danish weather (snow in Tokyo on 24 November!), on Friday 25 November co+labo mobile research pavilion, our urban cupboard gets out to the streets of Kanda, to help David and the team achieve Gehl quality work - and even more than that. The updates will be posted soon.

P.S. co+labo's Associate Davisi Boontharm edited the Thai version of Jan Gehl's seminal book Cities for People, the publication of which coincided with his 80th birthday.

 幸せな誕生日 Jan!!

co+laboradović     Madrid>Tokyo architecture exhibition@Around the Corner Grain Building     

The Friday evening rain has not affected the opening of the Madrid>Tokyo exhibition of young Spanish architects (left), at Around the Corner Grain building, designed by co+labo's Sano Satoshi and his Eureka group. That building was conceptualised as space which would support the emergence of spontaneous activities and help generate richer streetlife in one of the Tokyo's typical, low-rise high-density residential areas. The spaces intended for appropriation and improvisation sheltered the visitors of the opening of Madrid>Tokyo and facilitated interaction - even in the far from favourable weather conditions. The exhibition will stay open until 11 November, mirroring a parallel event in Madrid, which presents the projects of a group of fine, young Japanese architects, including Sano-san and Eureka.