co+laboradović     co+labo research seminar - Anil Thakur and his work about Chandigarh    

Dr Anil Thakur, a passionate researcher of the capital city of Indian state of Punjab and one of the much celebrated icons of modernist urbanism, Chandigarh, visited co+labo and presented key points of his lifelong work. Instead of providing yet another angle at the monumental part of the city, Anil's emphasis was on irresolvable complexity of the struggles which for decades keep on reshaping the residential areas of the modern(ist) capital. The follow-up discussion addressed a number of themes which will continue to resonate in co+labo - the richness and diversity of expressions of urban life across cultures,  impacts of imported modernisms on everyday life and, unavoidably, the controversies which still surround the towering figure of the great master, Le Corbusier. Darko reminded of Pierre Francastel and his point that we might never be able to say enough of good, nor bad about Charles-Édouard Jeanneret. 

Anil lives in Melbourne, working on his book about the changing built environments of Chandigarh.

co+laboradović    glimpses into the future of Japanese architecture: new co+labo series   
Within the Graduate Design Studio B, in organisation of co+labo's associate Sano Satoshi, a group selected young, up and coming architects from Tokyo will present their current projects and speak about their ideas and practice. The speakers are (27 April) Ryohei Tanaka (G architects studio), Motoo Chima (Tsubame Architects, Takuto Sando+Motoo Chiba+Himari Saikawa+Masakazu Ishigure), (18 `May) Kimitake Aoki (ARCO architects) and Tomonori Kajita and Makoto Tahara (kttm).

co+laboradović  new co+labo design research project Ground Floor Tokyo started in Ginza  
co+labo new investigation of the emerging passion for outdoor life has started in Ginza, with a lecture by Keio's Professor Hiroto Kobayashi, a member of Ginza Association's Design Council,followed by an intensive fieldwork immersion into the life of this exciting precinct of Tokyo. co+labo seizu III studio students and associates were joined by our guest, Professor Leonardo Chiesi of the University of Florence and his students.

co+laboradović      Passive Design for Active Life -  special lecture by Yuichiro Kodama      

Prominent Japanese architect, a foremost expert in sustainable architecture and urbanism delivered special lecture within our Seizu III Design Studio programme. Professor Kodama's lecture summarised some of the achievements of his distinguished academic and professional career, which both illustrate the possibility, and passionately advocate the necessity and qualities of Passive Design for Active Life.

co+laboradovićlecture+discussion+fieldwork with Leonardo Chiesi&Waseda Kobayashi Lab 
Collaboration with professor Leonardo Chiesi from the University of Florence started forcefully - lecture, discussion - go!  
After Darko's and Leonardo's introductory lectures and robust discussion, a joint fieldwork co+labo-Keigo Kobayashi laboratory from Waseda University has started.

co+laboradović    Leonardo Chiesi @ co+labo with lecture+seminar+fieldwork+discussions  
Professor Leonardo Chiesi from the University of Florence, after an productive semester at the UC Berkeley, is visiting co+labo, to present the latest in his work and to get involved with some of the co+labo research projects. 

co+labo radović  Fumihiko Maki's lecture opened architectural and urban design Studio B

co+labo radović  Fumihiko Maki’s lecture, organised by co+labo, opens a special studio 

This year Studio B, which for the majority of students of architecture at Keio University their final design project, will start on 13 April, with a very special lecture. The doyen of Japanese architecture Maki Fumihiko will present some of the latest work from his remarkable career, with special emphasis on tertiary education complexes and buildings. In 2016, the Studio will focus at design-research scenarios for a compact, top-class graduate school of design, in which a hypothetical future international programme of architectural and urban design could be delivered.

The subject, coordinated by Darko Radović, will be delivered by four young, already established architects, co+labo associates Sano Satoshi (Eureka), Kondo Tetsuo (Tetsuo Kondo Architects), Meijo Toshiki (Kengo Kuma and Associates) and Saikawa Takumi (Takumi Saikawa Architects), with interim and final presentations in front of the panels of Studio B, Keio and IKI regulars, including Sejima Kazuyo, Kobayashi Hiroto, Davisi Boontharm, Tatsuya Kishimoto, Jorge Almazán. Studio B 2016 was organised by co+labo.

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co+labo radović   the co+labo formula for success in semester 1 of the new school year  

co+labo radović  preparations for the new school year started with introductory seminars 

March and the beginning of April at co+labo are marked by the series of guest lectures and seminars, which are aimed to consolidate the knowledge base from which we plan to advance our research, design-research and actions in 2016.
The speakers included Oshima Yoshitaka (a long-term co+labo associate with strong interest in Smart Cities), Jessica Pineda (co+labo United Nations University Post-doctoral fellow), Vedrana Ikalović, Paula Jaen and Marco Capitanio (co+labo PhD students), Sano-san (architect and co+labo technical assistant) and Miyatake Staro (co+labo Masters student, with recent experience from Gehl Architects, Copenhagen).

 
Paula Jaen - The Assembly Line
Early last century, Henry Ford revolutionized the industrial production by putting up the moving assembly line for the fabrication of the Model T in the factory of Highland Park in Detroit. Its aim: to supply this vehicle to a society of many millions of people. In 20 years thousands of copies of the same product were sold, having a price even accessible for the operators of the Ford factory. The mobile assembly line would soon extend to other branches of manufacturing, finally including also naval and aviation. Representative cases of industrial architecture derived from this assembly process are aimed to be reviewed in this seminar, searching for its relations with building assembling systems of previous eras, setting out the existent closeness between tradition and industry.

The series continues throughout April into May, in co+labo and within our design-research Studio B and Seizu III.

 

co+labo radović   co+labo in UPC-Keio collaborative project in Barcelona   
This year, Darko was in charge of Keio Architecture Tour of Europe, which he conducted in collaboration with Professor Kohiyama. The trip included Barcelona and several Dutch cities. Visit to Barcelona offered great opportunity to further advance our discussions for collaboration with Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and their rich architecture and urbanism programmes. The visit was organised by professors Helena Coch and Estanislau Roca, and masterfully managed by their assistants Glòria Serra, Jordi Oriol Serra, Miquel Marti and Inés Aquilué.
What an architect could say about the event which started with reception in the Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion, with fine jazz concert and surrounded by a number of dear friends?! 

And ... what to say about  the proposal by colleagues from UPC to, in parallel to our Debordean dérive and wonderings through their fascinating city, have an intensive joint design workshop #FABRICs? 

We accepted the idea, and enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of Barcelona in early spring, and the intensity of the workshop.  
Architecture Tour of Europe is an undergraduate course. In 2016 the members included three new co+labo students, Morimoto Mei, Onishi Keitaro and Yamashita Yohei. Our workshop team was further strengthened by three co+labo Masters students - Ueno Wakataro (who has just completed his Masters degree), Akitaka Suzuki (who is doing his double degree at Politecnico di Milano), and Miyatake Sotaro (who was on his way back from Copenhagen and Gehl Architects to Tokyo). The workshop produced some interesting design proposals and, more importantly, helped students from UPC and Keio meet properly and establish good contacts, perhaps even the nuclei of some future friendships.
Discussions about future collaborative projects were happening on the sidelines, and we hope that they will get to the very centre of UPC and Keio agendas in the fields of architecture and urban design very soon.

co+labo radović  visit to Memu Meadows opens co+labo Barn House research activities in 2016 
Since construction of the co+labo's Barn House at Memu Meadows, with generous support by LIXIL Foundation our laboratory conducts regular fieldwork and research sessions at that beautiful site in Hokkaido. In March, co+labo Masters students accompanied new undergraduates and international students, to conduct regular maintenance and monitoring activities and discuss work to be done in the forthcoming year. They also had the opportunity to see the latest of buildings, the Oslo School of Architecture and Design project Introverted House, soon after its completion. As always, the visit to Memu Meadows was a combination of fun and hard work ...