Architectural Design V-IX: Tokyo: 35.68 N, 139.7 E (Charbonnet/Heiz)

Abstract

"How far does Tokyo go? A solid two hours by train from home – and I’m still in Tokyo?"—Furukawa, Hide. Slow Boat. 2017.

Objective

METHODOLOGY 1. Conduct a survey of Tokyo: driven by an agent, an environment, and by your own desires, draw a path within the city considering its implications and problematics. 2. Depict the experience of the path through architectural notations. 3. After having identified a problematic, use your imagination and critical thinking, to design a potential solution. 4. Elaborate a coherent narrative supported by a curated selection of multidisciplinary sources. INCENTIVES Conceptual & Critical Thinking Expression & Composition Argumentation & Rhetoric Narration & Storytelling Scenography & Atmosphere Drafting & Mounting Transversality & Cross-referencing SKILLS Researching Contemporary Concepts; Curating multidisciplinary Sources; Articulating a discursive Argument; Mastering Visual Literacy & Storytelling; Image Mounting & Composing; Architectural Drafting & Projecting; Transdisciplinary, Collaborative Design.

Content

PATHFINDER 5 is dedicated to the timeless city of Tokyo: its intricate history, morphology, mythology… all canonical spatial parameters suggested by Lefebvre: political, sociological, anthropological, economical, temporal.* Our interest will focus both on the banal and the sublime, on habits and exceptions, individual rites and social encounters. As the ordinary interweaves thousands of beats, repetitive tunes and syncopated breaks, there can be no territoriality without its temporalities, may it be that of urbanisation, of experience, or of dreams. Critical considerations, interlaced with the lure of fiction, shall initiate alternate (hi)stories and cityscapes. In the design studio we will draft, mount, design, discuss, play... confront our perspectives onto contemporaneity and ultimately imagine audacious yet playful architectural and territorial fictions. A series of lectures, screenings and discussions will enrich our investigations. *see: Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space (1974) & Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life (1992)

Resources