AKI ISHIDA

Designed and offered for the first time in 2016, the course presented an opportunity to see firsthand, under the guidance of a native Japanese faculty, the influences that traditional Japanese architecture and landscape has had on the contemporary Japanese architecture. The students observed and began to identify how the Modern Japanese architects, following the destruction of World War II, endeavored to reconstruct Japan by reexamining the European Modernism and generating an architectural language that was distinct from that of the West. With a decided focus on dense urban contexts of Tokyo and Kyoto/Osaka, the students observed and analyzed how traditional and contemporary urban buildings respond to and influence the surrounding site.

 

In March, the students organized an exhibit  drawings, photographs, and essays in the school lobby and shared their discoveries and insights in order to foster discussions in the school.