WINDOW RESEARCH INSTITUTE

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…

Architecture in Motion

Architect YU Momoeda who is a long-time admirer of Shoei Yoh participated in the Find and Tell residency program of the Canadian Centre for …

Shoei Yoh’s “Light Architecture”

… was presented at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum. Speaking at a lecture organized as part of the show Shoei Yoh reflected on one of his major …

Issue 13: Democracy Under Canopies (Fieldoffice Architects)

…a kind of archetypal image in Asian monsoon climates. It’s littl…

From Interiors to Non-Architecture

Architect and architectural history researcher Masaaki Iwamoto who has been leading the development of the Shoei Yoh Archive sheds light on …

The Ingot Coffee Shop: Building as a Mass of Glass

Tomo Inoue a building construction expert engaged in efforts to digitally reconstruct Shoei Yoh’s works using 3D scanners explains the novel…

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…

Shoei Yoh: A Journey of Light—Introduction

Architect Shoei Yoh began his creative career as an interior designer in the 1970s. In 2019 he donated materials from his professional archi…

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 …

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

…settlement in Iran (Traveling Asia through a Window: Masuleh) perhaps the same could be said even about modern architecture that is kept ali…

Terunobu Fujimori│006: The Shitomi of the Kondo Hall at Ninnaji Temple

…e introduced from continental Asia around 300 BCE bringing an end to t…

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…

Issue 8: The Town of Floating Pigeon Lofts

…es I’ve seen throughout Asia. Many of these homes also have spaces that are dark and warm along with spaces that are bright and open. …

Terunobu Fujimori│005: The Katōmado of the Shizutani School Auditorium: An Un-Japanese Japanese Window

…along the coasts of Southeast Asia (Buddhism’s southern transmission r…

Terunobu Fujimori | 004: The French Windows of the Glover House: Arrivals from India

…hat was developed in tropical Asia where the great powers had extended their presence. Such houses early forms of which first appeared in th…

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…

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…

Issue 6: Beckoning Qilous

…make Taiwanese society one of Asia’s best for women’s social advancement. When you’re here in the center the “livin…

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…

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 …

Online Event “Hashirama Sōchi: Richness of Space in Japanese Architecture – Talk by Nakatani Norihito” Presented by Japan House London

On Tuesday February 22 Japan House London will present an online event featuring Nakatani Norihito. Date  Tuesday 22 February 2022 Time  12:…

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

…life I’d seen before in Asian villages. At times this would take…

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

…illages and folk houses in 11 Asian and Middle Eastern countries (his essays about this trip are serialized on the Window Research Institute…

Japan House London presents Windowology: New Architectural Views from Japan

…and received a grant from the Asian Cultural Council (ACC) for a 6-month residency in New York in 2019.…

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

…says on windows as I traveled Asia because doing so allowed me to connect locations that are physically separated. The people of these lands…

Yusho Takiguchi, Aram from Armenia

The atmosphere in a room viewed through a window. The outdoor scenery …

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…

Takashi Homma on photographing the window in Le Corbusier’s architecture

…rchitecture across Europe and Asia while advancing his own investigations of the photographic medium. Homma’s interpretations include carefu…

Rushing Along the Nile: Egypt and the Nile

After walking around Cairo for a few days I took a flight to Aswan Egypt’s southernmost city. From there I followed the Nile River nor…

Japan House Los Angeles Presents a Webinar Discussion “New Views: The Influence of Windows on Architecture and Society”

…ts. Moderator | Fiona Wilson Asia Bureau Chief MONOCLE Fiona Wilson has been a notable presence and leading figure in design journalism. Sh…

A Conversation with Mario Botta

…ols of architecture in Europe Asia the United States and Latin America. From his early single-family houses in Ticino his work has expanded …

Facing the Arches: Cairo, Egypt (part 2)

Before Al-Qahirah the city that would become Cairo was created in the 10th century the city of Fustat stood slightly to the south. In this r…

A Combining City: Cairo

I got on a plane in Jordan and flew to Cairo Egypt. It was my first time on the African continent. Though most capitals are busy Cairo seeme…

Windows in Photography: Conversations with Iwan Baan, Takashi Homma and Yoshiharu Tsukamoto

…round the world across Europe Asia Africa and South America with so many images. Iwan’s photos capture diverse objects ranging from co…

Sensing Mother Earth: Petra, Jordan

During my trip I saw many ruins in many countries. While these sites stood distant from our modern lives the people who created them must no…

Religion and Cities: Isfahan, Iran

I experienced no small amount of culture shock in Iran as it was the first Islamic country I visited. Many of the people I passed on the str…

Memories of a Skylight: Tashqurqan Part 3

The following morning when I arrived at Classy’s house at the scheduled time we met with another man who seemed to be about the same age as …

Shifted Windows: Masuleh, Iran

There is a small village in the valleys of Iran known as Masuleh that has stood there for over a thousand years. Its tiered homes are built …

Memories of a Skylight: Tashqurqan Part 2

After driving for about 7 minutes in Classy’s car the windshield of which had a crack in it we arrived at a wetland area that was completely…

Memories of a Skylight: Tashqurqan, Part 1

…nown to me regions of central Asia sprawl out made up of countries like Tajikistan Afghanistan and Pakistan. These were the Pamir Mountains …

Breathing in the Desert: Yazd, Iran

The bus that headed from northern to southern Iran passed once more through alien landscapes created by the desert. It’s as if one mus…

A Desert below Sea Level — Turpan, Part 3

What I learned from these grape-drying huts was that the key to a dwelling in a desert below sea level was creating shadows by bricks poplar…

Starting by Surrounding: Takht-e Soleymān, Iran

I took a cheap shared taxi from Zanjan in northwest Iran headed next to the ancient ruins of Takht-e Soleymān. An archeological site centere…

Coffee & Cake

The window of a café in Myeongdong Seoul. It is composed of folding windows with metal frames on the top and a showcase window with sliding …

A Desert Below Sea Level — Turpan, Part 1

What kind of place is a desert below sea level? Turpan is located in the west of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region an autonomous region …

The City Is a Bazaar: Tabriz, Iran

Outside my bus window a new sight to me stretched as far as the eye could see. Smooth mountains that seemed to be striped red and white shar…