TOTO GALLERY·MA is pleased to present Akihisa HIRATA: Discovering New, a solo exhibition of architect Akihisa Hirata. This exhibition illuminates how Hirata has been attempting to grasp new possibilities by rediscovering architecture as a vital activity in a broad sense of the term.

Hirata, who considers architecture to be “a part of our generative vital activities”, has been exploring how to create an essential architecture by harnessing the laws of nature that govern the organic activities of plants, animals, and meteorological phenomena. His concept that “architecture is the creation of karamarishiro [a thing or place to tangle onto]” gives rise to the possibility of buildings serving as more than independent entities and becoming part of the greater living world.

Hirata brought this idea to fruition in the form of a public building with the Art Museum & Library, Ota (2017). Featuring rich communal spaces in which inside and outside organically intertwine, the city’s new landmark that was designed with local participation provides a setting where diverse activities can take place. The Tree-ness House (2017, house and gallery), completed in the same year, is composed of complexly stacked boxes intertwined with pleated openings and vegetation, which combined form a multilayered urban habitat.

Akihisa HIRATA: Discovering New marks how far Hirata has come with his architectural activities. It offers visitors the opportunity to gain an understanding of his architectural philosophy and creative world through an experiential presentation that lays out his past and ongoing work from the past decade systematically by concept.