WINDOW RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Issue 13: Democracy Under Canopies (Fieldoffice Architects)

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

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…

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

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 …

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…

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)

…ng an old settlement in Iran (Traveling Asia through a Window: Masuleh) perhaps the same could be said even about modern architecture that i…

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

In this series architectural historian Terunobu Fujimori who has trave…

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

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…

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…

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

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

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…

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…

Terunobu Fujimori | 003: The Vertical Sliding Windows of the Public Speaking Hall (Mita Enzetsukan)

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

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 …

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 …

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

…esearch Institute website as “Travelling Asia through a Window”). In 2…

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 …

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

…esearch Institute website as “Travelling Asia through a Window“). In 2017 he began working under Huang Sheng-Yuan at Fieldoffice Architects …

Issue 1: Windows Visited by Spirits: Pingdong

…esearch Institute website as “Travelling Asia through a Window”). In 2…

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 …

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…

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…

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…

An Alien Landscape from the Window

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…

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…

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

I headed further west from Turpan by train to arrive at a city in the western reaches of China called Kashgar. From there I climbed a mounta…

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…

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…

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…

Zhangcun: The Needs of the Underground Part 3

I realized something was strange here in the centenarian’s Yaodong. The entrances to Yaodongs are generally shaped into a pointed arc but up…

“Placing” a Home: East Gilan, Iran, part 2

In Kachalam a village in East Gilan a man agreed to show me around in his car despite it only being our first meeting. As he did I discovere…

Zhangcun: The Needs of the Underground Part 2

I’ve come to realize that meeting with elders is the best way to learn about their village. Walking through a loess land of beautiful green …