WINDOW RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Louis Kahn and the Power of Shadow

Does shadow have the power to give form to architecture? The increasing number of transparent buildings and LED installations enforces the i…

CCA-WRI Research Fellowship 2024

Applications for the 2024 cycle are now closed. Thank you to all who applied. The Window Research Institute in collaboration with the Canadi…

Issue 14: A Window for Standing Still—Fieldoffice Architects, Paomagudao Park

This issue I’d like to introduce a park that I designed myself. Jiaoxi Yilan’s Paomagudao Park completed in 2021 was formerly th…

01│Antoni Gaudí: A “Sensible Architect”

Introduction The window is an extremely popular motif among architects. It would be natural to think that the possibilities for window desig…

Issue 13: Democracy Under Canopies (Fieldoffice Architects)

Democracy and freedom have now spread throughout Taiwan a place where …

Talk Event Report: Swiss Window Journeys Speakers: Momoyo Kaijima, Chie Konno, Fumiko Takahama, Mio Tsuneyama

On June 22 2024 (Saturday) the Swiss Window Journeys – Swiss Windows and Architecture talk event was held in the Architectural Hall of the A…

Issue 12: A Small Church for the Indigenous (Taitung)

It’s said that Christians now constitute around 7% of Taiwan’s population a rather high proportion compared to Japan’s sta…

A window with a memory

I’ve enjoyed drawing pictures ever since I was little and used to make paintings using my own hands and brushes to apply oil to canvas and p…

Windows: Overlapping and passing through

Why wasn’t it a window? I organized an exhibition called Medium and Dimension: Liminal and wrote a text for the exhibition catalogue entitle…

The Windows of Hiroshi Hara’s Awazu House: Spaces of Light Illuminating the Darkness

…eceived the Japan Advertising Artists Club Award for his 1955 poster Umi o kaese (Give Our Sea Back) thrusting him into the spotlight as a s…

Issue 11: Joined Somewhere, Connected Throughout—Chen Chi-Kwan, Tunghai University Methodist Hall

The campus of Taiwan’s first private university Tunghai University stretches across the suburbs of Taichung a city in the center-west …

Gerrit Rietveld – A sense of space

Gerrit Rietveld (1888-1964) is perhaps Holland’s best-known architect. His Schröder House in Utrecht from 1924 has achieved iconic status. I…

Windows of the Aichi University of the Artsby Junzo Yoshimura and Akio Okumura:The Concrete Science of Living with Nature

The Aichi University of the Arts was built to the designs of Junzo Yoshimura and Akio Okumura in 1966. Situated in the forested hills of Nag…

Issue 10: The Billowing School—Chen Ren-He, Wave Building, San Sin High School of Commerce and Home Economics (Kaohsiung)

When talking about the first generation of post-war Taiwanese architects there are famous individuals such as Wang Da-Hong who studied under…

Issue 9: The Windy County Office—Yilan County Hall (Atelier Zo)

While this column has primarily introduced the windows of unnamed buildings in Taiwan there are a number of works of modern and contemporary…

Double Vision

…ied earlier in other mediums. Artists used the window as a portal to apply new notions of spatial order which had already begun to disrupt f…

Issue 8: The Town of Floating Pigeon Lofts

Houses stand there dotting the farmland. Small huts sit above them in the sky. It’s a bit of a strange sight but one that you’ll…

Does light stop within window panes? – Yuriko Kurimoto’s Window

Since Kunié Sugiura wrote about windows in New York last time let’s start this article on the topic of the American windows that were …

Donald Judd and Windows: Contemplating Openings Through the Artist’s Interior Designs and Architectural Renovations

0. Introduction——Why Judd Now? Donald Judd (1928–94) an icon of American Minimalism has many admirers in the architecture world. Presumably …

A Conversation with Christine Binswanger, Raúl Mera (Herzog & de Meuron)

Herzog & de Meuron the Basel-based architectural duo founded their firm in 1978 after studying architecture at ETH Zurich. They have sin…

Kunié Sugiura – My Window

A window is a structure that lets light into a room and provides a view of the outside world but when windows appear in photographs they are…

Between Hatakeyama and Sugiura

Kokei and Jokei: Sights we see scenes we feel Whenever transparent glass is installed into buildings or trains or cars a boundary is establi…

Issue 7: The Slate Village Down the Mountains: Pingtung

There are now around 580000 native Taiwanese (the term used in Chinese. In Japan it seems the term “indigenous” is often used) r…

Screen Time

Screens are everywhere: stadiums stations billboards buildings refrigerators thermostats on our wrists and in our hands. As a physical inter…

Made of Sunshine: Urban Commons and Real Estate, Montréal, Canada

The Window Research Institute partners with the Canadian Centre for Architecture to offer the CCA-WRI Research Fellowship. In this article w…

A new building under the sun

The Window Research Institute partners with the Canadian Centre for Architecture to offer the CCA-WRI Research Fellowship. In this article w…

Working Skill Sets

…22 fellows. Project Overview Artistic practices of site-specific installation like Gordon Matta-Clark’s maintain an improvisational sensibi…

Conversation with EMI Architekten

Ron Edelaar Elli Mosayebi and Christian Inderbitzin founded EMI Architekten in Zurich in 2005. The office has developed a particular focus o…

Issue 6: Beckoning Qilous

Just about everyone in Taiwan eats similar food from the countless semi-outdoor dining halls there. The students all line up for newly opene…

Vol.1 Naoya Hatakeyama Mirrors or Windows?

I gaze through the window. The scenery outside shines brightly while in a state of movement and I am drawn with fascination to all that unfo…

[Extended till Summer 2023]Windowology: New Architectural Views from Japan at the VILLUM Window Collection, Denmark

Please refer to the event archive from below link: After being exhibited at the three Japan Houses in Los Angeles São Paulo and London we ar…

Issue 5: The Matsu Islands: Small Windows on the Frontier (Part 2)

The first morning of the new year arrived as I stayed in my room on th…

Georgia O’Keeffe and Her Windows in New Mexico

At age 62 after living between New York City and New Mexico for many years artist Georgia O’Keeffe made rural Northern New Mexico her perman…

Issue 4: The Matsu Islands: Small Windows on the Frontier (Part 1)

The Matsu islands are located in northwest Taiwan about as close to mainland China as you can get. It’s one of the farthest locations …

Architecture with “Madosoto” at all times and in all places

Fushimi: Today as we begin our new series “Madosoto: Outside Scenery” we would like to discuss the scenery outside the window. First let me …

A Conversation with Christ & Gantenbein

Christ & Gantenbein was formed in 1998 by Emanuel Christ and Christoph Gantenbein after graduating from ETH Zurich. To date they have be…

Online Event “Windowology: Talk by Igarashi Tarō” Presented by Japan House London

On Thursday January 27 Japan House London will present an online event featuring Windowology Exhibition Director Igarashi Tarō. Date  Thursd…

Issue 3: Where the Pavilions Went : Orchid Island (Part 2)

I left the village of Yeyin and took a trip around the island. Going o…

Issue 2: The Buried Black Roofs : Orchid Island (Part 1)

While we may often speak of “Taiwanese people” people belonging to a variety of ethnicities and religions live in Taiwan. While …

Japan House London presents Windowology: New Architectural Views from Japan

The Window Research Institute is pleased to announce the exhibition Windowology: New Architectural Views from Japan from 1 December 2021 unt…

Issue 1: Windows Visited by Spirits: Pingdong

After his experience on a journey through villages and folk houses in …

Final Issue: Asia, Traveled through a Window

This will be the final installment of my four-year-long serialization documenting my eight-month-long trip. While I had decided where to go …

“WINDOWOLOGY: Estudo de janelas no Japão” at Japan House São Paulo

This exhibition showcases windows as fundamental elements of the Japanese society After being exhibited at Japan House Los Angeles the origi…

A Conversation with Peter Märkli

Peter Märkli one of Switzerland’s leading architects started his career after meeting his mentor the architect Rudolf Olgiati. In 1978 he es…

Life in the Holy Land: Jerusalem, Israel

I could see land the color of milk out of the airplane window. My journey had started in China moving ever westward from there and I was now…

Today/Yesterday #2

This column is the second in a series by artist Yokomizo Shizuka who lives in London. She weaves together photographs and text to show us wh…

From the “Window” Snapshots of the 1970s to Contemporary German Photography

Candida Höfer is one of Germany’s leading contemporary photographers. She studied under master photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher and is t…

A Conversation with Gion A. Caminada

Vrin is a village of fewer than 250 people nestled in a lush valley in the canton of Graubünden in eastern Switzerland. It is also the home …