WINDOW RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Of Homes and Windows in the 20th Century: In Conversation with Ken Tadashi Oshima, the Curator of Living Modernity: Experiments in Housing, 1920s–1970s

In the twentieth century as waves of modernization swept across the globe the home became a site of architectural experimentation—an arena i…

Arch window

A window with an arched (curved) upper frame or opening. There are various shapes such as the semi-circular arched window and the pointed la…

Diffuse window

A window that diffuses direct sunlight while enhancing privacy using translucent materials such as paper screens frosted glass milky glass o…

Leak window

A window commonly found in Islamic architecture and Chinese gardens featuring intricate openwork carvings across the entire frame. The gaps …

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…

Swiss Window Journeys: A Conversation between Andrea Deplazes, Laurent Stalder, and Momoyo Kaijima

On 12 April 2024 to celebrate the publication of Swiss Window Journeys: Architectural Field Notes the Chair of Architectural Behaviorology o…

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…

A Conversation with Leth & Gori

How do you create a house that can be maintenance-free for 50 years and last for at least 150 years? The Brick House designed by the Denmark…

Architecture in Motion

…inual change. The Behavior of Materials: The Glass Station Naiju Community Center and Nursery School and Uchino Community Center for Seniors…

Shoei Yoh’s “Light Architecture”

Through this series “Shoei Yoh: A Journey of Light” we have compiled analyses of the work of architect Shoei Yoh focused on the theme of lig…

Shoei Yoh: Architecture of Light, the Real, and Monism

Architectural historian Yoshitake Doi who began teaching in Kyushu in the 1990s and witnessed firsthand as Fukuoka-based Shoei Yoh completed…

“Shoei Yoh: A Journey of Light” Symposium to be held at the AIJ Hall on September 7, 2024

The Window Research Institute (WRI) is delighted to present the “Shoei Yoh: A Journey of Light” Symposium. Shoei Yoh (1940–) beg…

“Shoei Yoh: A Journey of Light” Symposium Report

On September 7 2024 the symposium “Shoei Yoh: A Journey of Light” was held at the AIJ Hall (Architectural Institute of Japan Tokyo). Centere…

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…

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…

A Culmination of Sutemi Horiguchi’s Aperture Designs: The Tokoname City Municipal Ceramics Research Institute (Tokoname Tounomori Research Institute)

The exhibition Explorations of Horiguchi Sutemi: Modernism Rikyu Garde…

A Conversation with Silke Langenberg

Silke Langenberg Full Professor for Construction Heritage and Preservation in the Department of Architecture at ETH Zurich has been conducti…

The Windows of the Cachat Buvette in Evian｜Jean Prouvé’s Windows #4

After resuming his creative activities with his new firm Jean Prouvé Constructions Prouvé presented an alternative version of the béquille i…

“Light is Light and Light”

The Archaeology of the Digital exhibition held at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in 2013 served as a catalyst for reevaluating t…

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…

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…

Windows of the Villejuif Temporary School｜Jean Prouvé’s Windows #3

After being driven out of the Maxéville Factory in Nancy Prouvé was prepared to go into retirement at his self-built home. Yet he would begi…

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

The Awazu House designed by Hiroshi Hara now searches for a path toward continuity. A number of masterpieces have been created here at this …

A Home that Draws in Breezes from All Directions: The Fumiko Hayashi House

Fumiko Hayashi (1903–1951) a prominent Showa era writer established a new residence in Shimoochiai (present-day Nakai) Tokyo in 1941 amid a …

Terunobu Fujimori│007: The Shōji of the Rinshunkaku

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

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…

A Conversation with François Charbonnet (Made in)

Made in is a highly acclaimed architecture firm that was founded in Geneva Switzerland in 2003. François Charbonnet one of its co-principals…

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…

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

In this series architectural historian Terunobu Fujimori who has trave…

The Prince Karuizawa: The Materiality of Kiyoshi Seike’s Windows

The New Karuizawa Prince Hotel (now The Prince Karuizawa) built in 198…

Windowless Buildings: Their Logic and Pathology

One characteristic element of the modernist architecture that emerged in the early twentieth century is the large window. That is windows mu…

A Conversation with Johansen Skovsted Arkitekter

On the occasion of the “Windowology: New Architectural Views from Japan” currently being held in Copenhagen we conducted a serie…

KATONO House

Virtual Tour

Located on the outskirts of Sapporo this single-story modernist building constructed with weathering steel bricks and other locally sourced …

Double Vision

Selecting “wallpaper” or organizing files on a “desktop” are now familiar acts that can either take place on our digital devices or in our l…

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 …

The Experimental Design of the KATONO House in Sapporo

Known as an experimental work of modern architecture tailored for Hokkaido’s climate the KATONO House (Personal Residence) in Sapporo design…

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 …

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

…urface: Matters of Aesthetics Materiality and Media writes “The screen has become an ever-present material condition of viewing” a continuum…

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…

Mediating Light: The Architectures of Photographic Production

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…

All of the Above: A Global Future of Energy

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