TOTO GALLERY·MA is pleased to present the exhibition "Fuminori Nousaku ＋Mio Tsuneyama: URBAN FUNGUS――Architecture is a Complex Ⅿesh."
Nousaku and Tsuneyama have been researching the relationship between architecture, cities, and ecosystems at universities in Japan and abroad while designing architecture and writing articles. They have been renovating the "Holes in the House,"their home and office, from an ecological viewpoint by drilling holes in the slabs of the existing steel frame house to circulate light and heat, breaking the concrete-covered exterior with their hands, and improving the soil. It is a place of implementation where they experiment and develop what they learned elsewhere into upcoming projects. They attempt to bring the wild back into the city based on their idea of "Urban Wild Ecology"and actively incorporate traditional knowledge of stone masonry and wood framing as well as materials that return to the soil, such as straw and earthen walls.
They refer to cities as "human-influenced habitats for diverse organisms."It decomposes part of contemporary cities faced with challenges, absorbs their nutrients, and grows like a fungus (mushroom.) They see architecture as a nexus point in the mesh of such decay and regeneration while striving to establish multispecies networks by using the wild and traditional knowledge to cut into the mesh and reconnect them.
This exhibition is an attempt to share their small trials and errors that everyone can emulate to reconnect the mesh through cross-sectional drawings and models of projects, including the proposed further renovation of the "Holes in the House" and the latest ”House on Classical Elements” Smart Village in Akiya. We hope viewers will perceive the possibilities and visions of architecture in the age of Anthropocene beyond it.