One of Japan’s youngest and brightest architects, Junya Ishigami, will be in Sydney on Friday, 7 February to deliver a one-off public lecture at the University of Sydney.
He is considered one of the most controversial architects of the last decade, and is known for his exceptionally delicate, artistic works that redefine an intimate relationship between art and architecture.
Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning senior lecturer Dr Peter Armstrong says, “In the unstable world of threatening environmental and economic disaster, Ishigami has created masterly buildings that respond to place and time, a veritable architecture of the floating world.”
Ishigami was born in Kanagawa, Japan and graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music with an MFA in Architecture in 2000. In the same year, he joined Kazuyo Sejima & Associates. In 2004, he established his own practice Junya Ishigami + Associates in Tokyo.
With a prolific body of international work extending across buildings, landscapes, installations and furniture, he has earned an enviable list of international awards. Additionally, he has participated in several prestigious exhibitions, including the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2008 and 2010.
His first completed building was the Kanagawa Institute of Technology’s KAIT workshop. It is a floor-to-ceiling, glass-enclosed, rectangular structure in which the interior space is divided by 305 slender pillars.
Kanagawa Institute of Technology's KAIT workshop. Image: geoffreysalvatore.tumblr.com
Other work includes the Yohji Yamamoto New York flagship boutique, which is located on a narrow triangular site in lower Manhattan.
Possibly one of his best-known works is his art installation ‘Balloon’, a helium-filled, floating, steel-like structure that is the size of a five-storey building, which appears heavy, yet floats within the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.
'Balloon' at the Museum of Contemporar Ark Tokyo. Image: www.thefoxisblack.com
In 2010 he became an Associate Professor at Tohoku University in Japan and in 2014 he is the Kenzo Tange Design Critic at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in the US.
Ishigami’s public lecture will give personal insight to projects from his early years and more recent signature works.
What: Junya Ishigami – Public Lecture at The University of Sydney
Where: The Wallace Theatre, The University of Sydney, Camperdown
When: Friday, 7 February, 6.30-7.30pm (welcome drinks from 5.30pm)
Cost: Free. Bookings essential via Eventbrite
