RYUE NISHIZAWA: TRAVEL FROM PLACES TO SPACES
Architect Ryue Nishizawa (b. 1966) has become one of the faces of Japanese architecture today. While maintaining his own eponymous office, he is also a principal at SANAA, which received The Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2010 for their ‘deceptively simple’ structures. With projects across the globe, Papersky decided to sit down with Nishizawa to talk about his travels, sense of place as well as the influence of architecture on our lives and on the future of Japan.
You have lived in Japan most of your life and in the last decade you’ve traveled a lot. How has this changed how you think about architecture? …»
LIFE AS A SCRAPBOOK: SHINRO OHTAKE
Shinro Ohtake (b. 1955) is a mixed-media artist known for his vast body of creative work and there is perhaps no other way to approach the artist and his artwork but to zoom right in for confrontation. Ohtake’s central theme, ‘working with what’s already there,’ makes the artist something of an improviser to time and place so Papersky decided to ask Ohtake about recent travels, memories and how time and place are ongoing influences.
Your large body of work leads me to believe you have a lot of creative impulses. You travel a lot as well, could you compare the impulses of creating something and wanting to go somewhere?
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John Kormeling and a hole in the the wall
John Kormeling stands amidst the disarray that is his house. Metal scraps, paper shreds, a screaming child and watermelon rinds are strewn across the space. Models in metal and wood, children’s toys, faded posters, piles of books, trunks and dark corners full of mystery all make it clear that this is a man who keeps everything. It is one of those rare days in the depths of summer when a balmy heat descends on the Netherlands and sits like …»
Skateboard File III: Professional Skater Deshi
“I grew up in nature- my house was surrounded by it, I used to play in the mountains and venture into caves and spent endless hours at the beach swimming and trying to catch sea urchins.” Its been years, since the second grade, when Deshi moved from Ehime prefecture to Tokyo with his family. Growing up in West-Tokyo ward Ota, Deshi took up skateboarding when he was thirteen years old and recalls the spark that lit the friction, “When I was living in Ota-ku, I remember being in my earlier teenage years and I was hanging out at the local arcade. One day I saw some gangster-type kids skateboarding. One of them was actually pretty good and when he popped a kickflip I was totally stunned. I knew I couldn’t do something like that but witnessing it was just etched into memory.” Deshi continued his story as Paper Sky listened. …»
Alex Kerr’s Getaway
For those in search of the past, here is a mountain retreat from the pages of history. Step back in time and catch a glimpse of a life once lived all over Japan and while you’re there, lend a hand to construct it again. In “Lost Japan,” I wrote of discovering a thatched roof farmhouse in Iya valley, which I bought in 1973 and named Chiiori (Cottage of the Flute). Over the years I rethatched the house and began to learn more about the village surrounding it. I discovered that the area preserved …»
