Not only since Junya Ishigami received the Golden Lion for his breath-taking contribution to the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2010, has he been one of Japan's most famous young architects. Born in 1974, Ishigami works with a design philosophy that tries to create constructions that seem as light as the air, and sometimes almost invisible - like the aforementioned installation in Venice, which was accidentally knocked down by cleaning staff who simply didn’t see it.
Ishigami seems to follow in the footsteps of SANAA, for whom he worked in the past. Yet his architecture is far from a simple copy-and-paste of what seems to be a well-known (and well-selling) example of contemporary Japanese architecture. Ishigami is interested in exploring the limits of what is possible: how immaterial in expression can elements of our built environment really become? Where are the actual limits to building if we apply the latest construction techniques and materials? To him, it doesn’t seem to matter if he then creates a tremendously long table, which miraculously stands on four legs with no additional support, or if he explores this same interest through his famous workshops for the Kanagawa Institute of Technology, where he created an incredibly light space with a spare design language with glass and tiny white columns made of steel. We are therefore really excited about the news that his first solo exhibition will open later this week in Antwerp, Belgium:
Exhibition: Junya Ishigami. How Small? How Vast? How Architecture Grows
8 February - 16 June 2013
Location: DeSingel, Desguinlei 25, 2018 Antwerp, Belgium
www.desingel.be
