TOTO GALLERY･MA is delighted to welcome architecten de vylder vinck tallieu (ADVVT), the Gent-based Belgian architectural firm attracting worldwide attention, and host their first exhibition in Japan.
ADVVT actively incorporates contingencies and given conditions which are often beyond their control in their design to create various spaces regardless of factors including the budget amount and the status of construction.
CARITAS (2016), one of their representative works, is a renovation project of a psychiatric clinic built in the 19th century where the demolition had already started. Through many discussions with doctors, therapists, and patients, the architects conceived an open space serving various purposes by simply inserting a new greenhouse into the existing building which roof had been already removed, while repairing only as necessary. This project was presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2018 and ADVVT won the Silver Lion for "possessing a confidence that slowness and waiting allow architecture to be open to future activation."
ADVVT, who considers education as an important part of their design activities, had a workshop specially planned for this exhibition at Tokyo Institute of Technology last spring. The workshop was aimed at extracting the universal essence of architecture as well as comparing contexts in Belgium and Japan by assigning students to closely analyze and reinterpret concepts behinds ADVVT's works and insert the buildings into different contexts in Japan while exploring how the concepts could be reflected in their design. The exhibition features ADVVT's key works along with the models and drawings produced at the workshop. All are invited to experience architecture through ADVVT's eyes.