Notes from Tezuka Architects

(9 August)
"there is no building type...I want find them to find a site possibly walking distance from your studio....

I don't want them to use any computer. I want them to express their ideas with models.  No computer."

 

(5 August)

"

I want students to make a invisible architecture with your own sky. Physically it is impossible to make architecture to be invisible, because architecture is a physical existence. Structral engneer, Mutsuro Sasaki, told me that, it is impossible to erase structure, but it can become imperceptible, when it becomes so natural.

 

The idea will be based on a Japanese concept called Shitsurae. Shiturae is the concept to set up or prepare. Shitsurae is not subject or purpose.

Shitsurae should never be arrogant or ostentatious but be natural and calm. Shiturae should act like a nice dish to celebrate a cuisine on it.

Japanese architecture is not a shelter to protect human being. It is the device to make one's life to be a part of existence.  There was no difference between Nature and Natural philosophically in Japan. Nature used to be not to be controlled but to be embraced as it is. There was no single truth. Japanese used to say there are eight million gods in the world. The gods are everywhere. We human being exist as a part of the whole existence.

SASHIMI
 

Sashimi is not just raw fish. In Europe, Japanese used be known to eat uncooked fish as a Pelican eats a live fish, but now everybody knows that Sashimi is a delicate cuisine. It is a very intriguing

situation. Sashimi is still uncooked fish. Physically it is still the same meat as before the treatment, yet it taste different. Very precise skill is needed to prepare sashimi. It takes years of training to be a master chef. The angle to slice and thickness of the meat must extremely precise. The procedure must be very fast, because the good taste stays only few minutes. The cooking knife must be extremely well sharpened and forged by well trained craftsman. Sashimi is the art to taste the genuine existence of nature.

RAW NATURE
 

Human beings have evolved too much to appreciate nature as it is. As we need to cook food, we need architecture to live with nature. Please do not say, a stone is enough to appreciate nature. Yes you can sit on a stone occasionally, but architecture is capable of making you to appreciate nature much more nicely. It is the similar procedure to make a good cuisine, sashimi. Just a simple but profound gesture makes a big difference.

THE PAST
 

I don't want you to design Japanese tea house. Japanese tea house is nothing more than a conventional style. It is the past knowledge to be utilized. Past is to be referred to but not imitated.

SKY
 

I want you to find your own sky in your project. Sky is the element which Japanese architecture could not deal with well. John Utton described Japanese architecture as a floating roof, roof is the fundamental element of Japanese architecture. Roof was the one to disconnect people from the sky, yet still it may be possible to say, Japanese used to perceive sky with the sound made by rain.

 

I want you to find your own sky. You can find sky everywhere, but each one is different. I am not saying just a simple fact that the sky in Tokyo is different from the one in Auckland. When your friend stand next to you, you are looking at different sky from your friend. I want you to make sure the sky is your own with your own architecture.

 

Takaharu Tezuka"

(2 August)
" I want students to make a invisible architecture with your own sky. Physically it is impossible to make architecture to be invisible, because architecture is a physical existence. The idea will be based on a Japanese concept called Shiturae. Please relax. Please do not try too much, before I go. If you can lecture about Japanese tea house, it will help them.
Great Japanese architectures are like a sharp Japanese cooking knife. It is a tool to slice and cut environment.

I am writing more. I will be back shortly.

- Takaharu tezuka"