Roof and Mushrooms | WATER AND ART

2013.10

Ryue Nishizawa + nendo: Roof and Mushrooms

Ryue Nishizawa and Oki Sato of nendo co-created an installation based on the idea of a hideout. They realized this in the Entrance Lounge and on Uryuyama, a hill on the Kyoto campus of the University of the Arts. Nishizawa designed roof structures that were precisely calculated to curve along the slopes, and had the structures built by Kyoto-based Yamamoto Kogyo, who specializes in sukiya architecture. The roofs were reminiscent of a green field, so Sato designed stools that looked like mushrooms growing in shadowy fields to place under the roofs.

While sukiya architecture is usually symmetrical, the roofs designed by Nishizawa are asymmetrical and round. The carpenters had to cut the wood very precisely at the designated angles and plane them by hand to shape the curves. The metal fittings each made by hand. Pillars to support the two different diameters of the roofs were carefully planted in accordance with the condition of the ground and according to the design plan and took two months to build. While construction of contemporary architecture gives rise to the loud sounds of machines and iron frames, the sounds of planers and iron hammers echoing in Uryuyama seemed to suggest a style of architecture of the future, in which highly advanced calculations are visualized through wood and metal.

Date: October 4, 2013 – January 13, 2014

Venue: Entrance Lounge, 1F Ningenkan, Kyoto University of the Arts and mountain garden

Location: Uryuyama, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto

Program: Work outside (Temporary Pavillion)

Organizer: Kyoto University of the Arts

Architects: Office of Ryue Nishizawa

Structural engineers: ARUP

Furniture: nendo

Installation: Yamamoto Kogyo Co.,Ltd.

Fabrication: Ochiai Seisakusho and Kadowaki Coating

Structure: Wood frame

Building area: 57.72 m²