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

…tested. The exhibition Living Modernity: Experiments in Housing 1920s–1970s now on view at the National Art Center Tokyo revisits this pivot…

Single casement window

A window with a sash hinged to one side of the frame opening outward or inward by pivoting around the hinges. See also casement window.

Power window

An electrically operated window controlled by a switch or remote often used for heavy or hard-to-reach windows. Some modern models support s…

Horizontal window

A wide window introduced by Le Corbusier in his 1926-1927 “Five Points of Architecture” which later became a hallmark of modern …

Ribbon window

A wide window introduced by Le Corbusier in his 1926-1927 “Five Points of Architecture” which later became a hallmark of modern …

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…

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…

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…

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…

Terunobu Fujimori│008: The Ribbon Window of the Karuizawa Summer House—The Modernists’ Dream, Realized in Japan

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

“Shoei Yoh: A Journey of Light” Symposium Report

…ikolaus Pevsner’s Pioneers of Modern Design (1936) for instance was originally a catalogue for an architectural exhibition. He explained tha…

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

…is to say information. “Modernization now causes local resources to grow more distant from oneself while our information society cause…

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 Diversity of Windows in Kiyonori Kikutake’s Serizawa Literary Center (Serizawa Kojiro Memorial Museum)

Numazu Shizuoka—the birthplace of Kojiro Serizawa the author known for works such as Ningen no Unmei [The Fate of a Human]. Nestled in a pin…

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…

The Windows of Tomoya Masuda’s Naruto Cultural Center: A Faintly Bright Louvered Space

The Naruto Cultural Center is a posthumous work by architect Tomoya Masuda. It is one of several buildings that the former Kyoto University …

The Windows of the Diffendorfer Memorial Hall and University Chapel at the International Christian University (ICU): Preserving, Passing On, And…

The International Christian University’s campus plan was originally designed by W. M. Vories & Co. and later developed by Antonin Raymon…

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…

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…

The Window: A Journey of Art and Architecture Through Windows

…te and the National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo (MOMAT). This exhibition remarked on the windows that have been intimately connected to ou…

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…

Why Norman Foster Scoops Daylight into his Buildings

Norman Foster known for blending art and science in architecture has led the field since the late 20th century. His designs balancing high-t…

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

…he Musée National d’Art Moderne’s collection housed at the Centre Pompidou. References Ecole A Villejuif Près De Paris L’Arch…

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 …

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 …

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

…in the Interwar Japan: On the Modernization and Yearning for the Houses” Journal of the Housing Research Foundation Jusoken no. 48 (2021). 2…

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…

Migishi Atelier

Virtual Tour

This early work of Japanese wooden modernist architecture was built for the painter couple Kotaro and Setsuko Migishi. Despite undergoing mu…

The Windows of the Komai House by W. M. Vories & Co.

The soon-to-be 100-year-old Komai House now called the Taku & Shizue Komai Museum stands along a canal path in Kitashirakawa a suburban …

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…

Katsura Catholic Church

Completed in 1965 the Katsura Catholic Church in Kyoto is known as the only George Nakashima-designed building in Japan. The structure of th…

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…

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…

Windowless Buildings: Their Logic and Pathology

…tive Force of HVAC Technology Modern HVAC systems that integrate the functions of heating cooling ventilation and dehumidification were deve…

KATONO House

Virtual Tour

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

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 …

Thinking About Architecture from Their Windows

This book presents findings from the Tohoku University Taro Igarashi Laboratoryʼs Windowology research themed on “Window History” (2007–2009…

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

In this series architectural historian Terunobu Fujimori who has trave…

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

…Art Saitama and The Museum of Modern Art Shiga (Saitama: The Museum of Modern Art Saitama 1999) 162. Originally published in Donald Judd and…