Synopses & Reviews
Located in Gifu, sits a building that constitutes the first material expression of Kazuyo Sejima's studies on metropolitan housing. This investigation proceeded from the conclusion that not all subsidized housing needs to be the same. Starting from a generic public housing program, Sejima's housing block in Gifu departs from convention and occupies the conceptual and physical space created between oppositional design concerns: where a strictly modulated structure confronts a random arrangement of different spaces; between the length of the building and the reduction of its built depth; between inhabitable space and the surrounding landscape; between the individual and the family unit.
Synopsis
This book considers in detail a recent Tokyo housing project designed by a woman -- Kazuyo Sejima -- who is transforming Japanese architecture with her groundbreaking creations. Sejima is emerging as one of Japan's premiere architects, and this is the first book available in English on her work. Kazuyo Sejima was born in 1956 in Ibaraki prefecture in Japan. After her graduation she joined Toyo Ito's office in 1981; six years later she set up the office of Kazuyo Sejima & Associates and soon was awarded several prizes for her work in the field of residential architecture and industrial design. In 1995 she was awarded third prize in the Yokohama International Port Terminal design competition.