GALLERY・MA

■Guide to Bell-Ringing Times

 
Study in Real

To me, creating architecture is the act of studying reality and expanding its boundaries.

Even after majoring in architectural design at university, getting practical experience at an architectural firm, and beginning my own practice, rather than feeling as if I had finished learning, the need to study became even stronger as I considered and created my buildings. Learn and study are similar words. "Learn" suggests being taught and acquiring a certain skill, while "study" refers to the act of examining something. The word "study" also includes the nuance of active engagement. It suggests research, effort, and artistic studies. In the architecture world, it is used to mean the trial manufacturing of a design through models, but the act of objectively gazing, thinking, modifying, and cultivating an idea that you have devised is truly a process of active study. Cultivating an idea is also a means of developing yourself. In a semi-conscious state, you transcend yourself through the reality of a project, and attempt to discover a new you. Once you get to that point, you have the sense that a previously unimaginable, new reality has emerged. Studying reality and expanding its boundaries are two sides of the same coin.

For this exhibition, I have begun an architectural expansion of a kindergarten in the city of Ishinomaki, which suffered extensive damage in the Great East Japan Earthquake, which occurred in March 2011. After the extremely small building I have designed is erected in the gallery's courtyard, it will be moved to the school in Miyagi Prefecture after the exhibition has ended. 

We now know that in the face of an unforeseen disaster such as an earthquake, it is difficult to deal with the situation through learning alone. Of course, this is also true of other situations. It seems to me that in addition to repeatedly questioning many different aspects and pursuing a wide range of real projects, study is an indispensable part of our era, defined as it is by a sense of complexity and uncertainty.

The act of studying improves the quality of creation. In this exhibition, I hope to present the consistently real and studied responses that I have used in my projects of the past and my current project in Ishinomaki.

Go Hasegawa

In his debut work, House in a Forest (2006), Hasegawa designed a gabled attic space supported by struts under a gabled roof, creating a wholly unique spatial sensation. By placing a large table in the center of his next work, House in Sakuradai (2006), he proposed a new relationship between the individual rooms and the living room. More recently, in Apartment in Nerima (2010), Hasegawa equipped every unit with a large terrace with its own distinctive form to incorporate signs of the city into the building. In addition, in Pilotis in a Forest (2010), he elevated the living room on pilotis with a floor height of 6.5 meters, and supported it with nine thin columns. By integrating the surrounding forest with the work, Hasegawa proposed a bold spatial structure, and received much acclaim for realizing a work in which a comfortable link was created between the resident and the house, and the architecture and the environment. In the now underway Belfry in Ishinomaki (set to completed in 2012), Hasegawa and a group of volunteers are planning to donate a small belfry to a kindergarden in the city of Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, which suffered extensive damage in the Great East Japan Earthquake. The work is imbued with the thought that the sound of the bell will serve as a symbol of hope in local recovery efforts. Through the scale models and sketches that were developed in the planning for each of the eleven projects that Hasegawa has been involved with in the past, in this exhibition, we hope to convey the relationship between the architect's works and the surrounding environment. In the gallery's courtyard, Hasegawa will also erect Belfry in Ishinomaki, which will then be moved to Ishinomaki when the exhibition concludes. While suggesting a variety of real conditions that Hasegawa faces in his projects, the title of the exhibition, Study in Real, expresses the architect's view of the future in which while actively considering and repeatedly studying, he attempts to cultivate himself and improve the quality of his architecture. We hope that you will have a better sense of the potential of new architecture through the practice of Go Hasegawa, who promises to become increasingly active in the years to come.

TOTO GALLERY・MA

Guide to Bell-Ringing Times at the "Belfry in Ishinomaki"

During the period of the Go Hasegawa: Study in Real exhibition, the bell in the "Belfry in Ishinomaki" will be rung three times a day. Be sure not to miss the bell’s ringing sound of hope!

Bell-Ringing Times
(1) 12:00
(2) 15:00
(3) 17:00

Please note that the bell will be rung by an officer in charge, the times may be changed without notice, and bell ringing may be cancelled in the case of bad weather.

Special acknowledgements
Ishinomaki Eiko Kindergarten (Ishinomaki Eiko Church)
Ohno Japan
Kudo Komuten
Carillon Center
Royal Eijsbouts
Koizumi Manufacturing
Aratani Orthopedics and Internal Medicine Clinic
Hida Takayama Church (United Church of Christ in Japan)
Hida Asia-Africa Clothing Relief and Charity Executive Committee
Toyama Kenzai
DAIKO