WINDOW RESEARCH INSTITUTE

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 …

No.0: Six Topics for Makoto Ueda’s Interpretation of the Window Space

To kick off the series “Vague Focal Space at the Window” I interviewed Makoto Ueda the former Editor in Chief of Toshi Jutaku (Urban Housing…

Takamasa Yosizaka: A Window Looking Out on the Slope of a Mountain, For One to View the Scenery Below

Directing light into a room and letting in air are the major roles for window to play in making a living environment comfortable. Yet there …

Junzo Yoshimura, Sonoda House: Sliding Glass Door Leading to the Garden and Waist-high Window Making a Space Somewhat Core to the Design

A room with a vague focal space During an exhibition of the work of YOSHIMURA Junzo (1908–1997) in 2005 (held at The University Art Museum T…

Terunobu Fujimori｜ 002: The Diverse Openings of the Yosuitei’s Thirteen-Window Tearoom

In this series architectural historian and architect Terunobu Fujimori who has traveled extensively to study buildings of various times and …

Shikidō/Frosted Glass Window for Study

This place is the birthplace of Shiki Masaoka where he lived until the age of 17 years reproduced in Matsuyama Ehime Prefecture. Shiki studi…

Hayashi Grape Labo/Greenhouse Window

A greenhouse for growing Muscat in Tsutaka Kita Ward Okayama Prefecture. For the cultivation of Muscat a temperature of approximately 20 °C …

Terunobu Fujimori｜001: The Advent of Magical Light-Transmitting Surfaces, Glass Doors of the Hirano Residence

In this series architectural historian and architect Terunobu Fujimori who has traveled extensively to study buildings of various times and …

Windows of the Prouvé House｜Jean Prouvé’s Windows #2

…ne wall. Window #2: Rotating Glass Window This window which measures …

House of Sato Mataroku/Window for inner warehouses

A mercantile house in Masuda Yokote City Akita Prefecture with a history of around 350 years. It has been designated as an important nationa…

Four Tectonic Features that Reside Within Prouvé’s Window Details

Jean Prouvé was originally a metalworker by trade but he became a leading modernist architect himself through collaborating with progressive…

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…

Logging Railway Engine Shed/Window of the Former Forestry

This is a wooden one-story logging railway engine shed in the Historical Village of Hokkaido. The trains enter and leave from the double-ope…

Former Shimauta Post Office/Wooden Counter and the Window

This is a wooden two-story post office in the Historical Village of Hokkaido built in 1902. It was restored in 1960. The modern-day post off…

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 …

Ehime Sanshu/Window of the Sericulture House

Three-story wooden sericulture house in Yawatahama Ehime Prefecture built in 1884. The building is still being used today. The interior feat…

Shinko Clock Shop/Window on the Workbench

Clock store on the island of Osaki Shimojima in Kure Hiroshima Prefecture operating since the Meiji period. The main building on the first f…

A Conversation with Mario Botta

Mario Botta a master architect born in Ticino in the south of Switzerland still lives and works in the area practicing architectural design.…

Former Hirose Photo Studio/Roof Glass with Curtains

This is a wooden two-story restored photo studio in the Historical Village of Hokkaido. The roof on the north side is glass known as a singl…

Chapter 3: The viewfinder—transparency and voyeurism from Albrecht Dürer to Ai Weiwei

Every representational image ever made is necessarily a finite framing of the outside world a viewfinder presenting only what the creator wa…

Life Seeps Through Frosted Glass

Clear air born from the trees the land. White steam that murmurs from a kitchen. Plants that sprout from the earth and flowers floating in a…

Nature Behind a Curtain Wall

Clear air born from the trees the land. White steam that murmurs from a kitchen. Plants that sprout from the earth and flowers floating in a…

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…

A Conversation with Gigon / Guyer

The Chair of Architectural Behaviorology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) led by architect Momoyo Kaijima condu…

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…

Chapter 2: The frame – the window as optical device or trompe l’oeil from Mantegna to Ryan Gander

Whether facing outwards to the world or inwards to the self an artist is often restrained by the framing device of the window—unable to brea…

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 …

Symbolic Realism

The pioneers (2) Talbot View of the Boulevards at Paris 1843 William Henry Fox Talbot was in France between May and June 1843. The main reas…

Chapter 1: The studio – exploring the mind of the artist from Caspar David Friedrich to Spencer Finch

An artist contemplates a blank canvas or a white piece of paper in the studio or at a table perhaps waiting for a memory or some inspiration…

Yabeya Konomi Honke/Window of the Green Tea Merchant

Konomi Honke is a long-established retailer that has sold Yame green tea in Yame Fukuoka Prefecture for around 300 years. The current buildi…

Hidaka Training and Research Center (JRA)/Window of the Horse Track

Located on the premises of the JRAʼs production training and research center an approximately 1500-hectare ranch in the Hidaka region which …

Takekobo/Window of the Bamboo Workshop

A bamboo workshop in Uchiko Ehime Prefecture established about 140 years ago. To be able to open its narrow front window as widely as possib…

Higoya/Window of the Sea Bream Miso Store

This restaurant in Tomonoura Hiroshima Prefecture specializes in sea bream miso. Under the building’s eaves are multiple double-sliding glas…

Part 6: Proverbs Left to us by Laozi

The aperture in Japanese architecture is the “ma” or “space between ob…

Vol. 5: A Contrastive Linguistic Analysis of Words for “Window”—Based on Comparative Analyses of Japanese, German, English, and Italian Idioms

Linguist Yasunari Ueda looks into the origins of words that mean “wind…

Looking at Freespace through the Windows, Part 3

…ntation of Hiroshi Sugimotoʼs Glass Tea House Mondrian in its front garden in 2014 the island is becoming a familiar destination for Biennal…

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…

Looking at Freespace through the Windows, Part 1

The 16th Venice Architecture Biennale is currently open from Saturday May 26 to Sunday November 25 2018 in Venice Italy. Appointed Directors…

Vol. 3: Windows in English

Linguist Yasunari Ueda looks into the origins of words that mean “window” from around the world to explore the process through which the con…

Part 5: To China International Window City!

The aperture in Japanese architecture is the “ma” or “space between objects.” The aperture in western architecture is the “hole.” What is it…

Garlic Window in Vessalico village

Lemon raised under the shining sun; cured ham aged in a rich flavor by growing mold; wine made from grapes raised under well-ventilated perg…

Architectural Ethnography, Part A

To commemorate the occasion of the 16th International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia (May 26th-November 25th 2018) the Windo…

Tenjin Sanshi Kojo/Window of the Paper Factory

This is a 90-year-old paper factory in Uchiko Ehime that specializes in making Ozu washi (handmade Japanese paper). The paper is made using …

Windows and Memories

The artist Leandro Erlich became quite a topic of conversation at this past “Windowology 10th Anniversary Exhibition” with the presentation …

Part 4: Postmodern Windows that Symbolize Liberation

The aperture in Japanese architecture is the “ma” or “space between objects.” The aperture in western architecture is the “hole.” What is it…

IIM cafeteria

A window in the cafeteria of the Indian Institute of Management designed in Ahmedabad by Louis Kahn. The large brick arch creates a buffer l…

Part 3: Apertures for Walking Through

…o go in and out through them. Glass with its translucence plays a big role in these cases by visually erasing the border between inside and …

Part 2: Apertures for View

…n chairs and faced the cross. Glass was laid between a comfortable human scale indoor space and the cross which was positioned at just the r…