WINDOW RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Thursday, September 28 – Monday, October 9, 2017 (public holiday) @ Spiral Garden, Minato-ku, Tokyo
A confluence of academic research and contemporary art themed on windows

Participants include architects and researchers and also artists such as Leandro Erlich and Takashi Homma

YKK AP Inc. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Hidemitsu Hori) will be marking the 10^th anniversary of its Windowology research activities by holding a special exhibition titled Windowology 10^th Anniversary Exhibition: The World Through the Window at the Spiral Garden (Minato-ku, Tokyo) from Thursday, September 28, 2017, to Monday, October 9, 2017 (public holiday).

Operating on the belief that “windows represent civilization and culture”, we at YKK AP have been approaching windows from various viewpoints such as architecture, culture, and art through our Windowology research program, which we initiated in 2007 with the aim of exploring the window as an academic subject from a wide range of angles together with researchers and architects. This exhibition will take a comprehensive look at the knowledge and sensibilities surrounding the window as a universal cultural phenomenon and consider the appeal of windows anew on the occasion of the 10^th anniversary of the Windowology program.

The exhibition will feature lucid presentations of findings from Windowology research conducted over the past decade and invite visitors to think about and experience windows in a broad range of ways. Participants from academic fields will include seven researchers from educational and research institutes, such as the University of Tokyo, who will be sharing their work in research exhibits. Participants from the art field will include Leandro Erlich, Takashi Homma, and Yusuke Kamata, who will each present new window-themed artwork that they have created for the exhibition. Additionally, the show will feature a special exhibit by renowned Italian designer Michele De Lucchi.

We aim to create an exhibition that encapsulates the decadeʼs worth of diverse Windowology research together with our production team, which also consists of distinguished members such as Tohoku University professor and architectural critic Taro Igarashi (exhibition director), who has been the General Supervisor of the Windowology program since its launch in 2007; architect Tezzo Nishizawa (exhibition design), who redesigned the collection galleries of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; and graphic designer Ken Okamoto (exhibition graphics), who works with a wide range of mediums from exhibitions to books.

The exhibition will be complemented by a symposium, titled “Windowology 10th Anniversary Symposium: Windows Represent Civilization and Culture”, which will be held on Wednesday, October 3, 2017.

The international academic symposium will feature window-related research presentations and lectures by approximately 20 invited speakers. The panel will be composed of experts from various fields who have participated in Windowology activities in the past and also unique guests from overseas, including world-renowned architectural photographer Iwan Baan, historian and architect Terunobu Fujimori, architect and architectural historian Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani, and our special exhibitor Michele De Lucchi. This special full-day event that will bring together architects, historians, sociologists, and anthropologists to discuss windows is an occasion not to be missed.

Additionally, we will also be marking the 10th anniversary of our Windowology activities by opening the Window Research Institute Annex on October 1, 2017. We will utilize our newly established base to expand the breadth of our activities aimed at spreading appreciation for window culture.

 

Windowology 10^th Anniversary Exhibition:
The World Through the Window

Overview
Admission: Free
Venue: Spiral Garden and Showcase (SPIRAL, 1F)   5-6-23 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0062  Rep. Tel.: 03-3498-1171
Dates + Hours: Thu., September 28, 2017 – Mon., October 9, 2017 (Public Holiday) 11:00 – 20:00 (open every day)
Exhibition Director: Taro Igarashi (Professor, Tohoku University; General Supervisor of Windowology)
Exhibiton Coordinator: Naomi Shibata
Exhibition Design: Tezzo Nishizawa (Architect)
Exhibition Graphics: Ken Okamoto (Graphic designer)
Organizer: YKK AP Inc.
Website: http://madogaku.madoken.jp/en/
Talk Event:  Thu., September 28, 2017

Artwork Exhibits (alphabetical order)
Leandro Erlich (Artist), Takashi Homma (Photographer), Yusuke Kamata (Artist)

Research Exhibits (alphabetical order)
Hiroshi Hara (Professor Emeritus, The University of Tokyo; Hiroshi Hara + Atelier Phi), Taro Igarashi (Professor, Tohoku University; Architectural historian/critic), Yuichiro Kodama (Professor Emeritus, Kobe Design University; ESTEC DESIGN),  Shin Muramatsu (Professor, The University of Tokyo; Architectural historian), Norihito Nakatani (Professor, Waseda University; Archiologist), Koji Sato (Associate Professor, National Museum of Ethnology; Architectural anthropologist), Yoshiharu Tsukamoto (Professor, Tokyo Institute of Technology; Atelier Bow-Wow)

Special Exhibits
Michele De Lucchi (Architect/Designer)

Talk Event Speakers (September 28) (alphabetical order)
Leandro Erlich (Artist), Hiroshi Hara (Professor Emeritus, The University of Tokyo; Hiroshi Hara + Atelier Phi), Taro Igarashi (Professor, Tohoku University; Architectural historian/critic)

* The exhibition will travel to universities nationwide after October (Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Tohoku University, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Osaka City University, and Kyushu University).

 

Windowology 10^th Anniversary Symposium:
Windows Represent Civilization and Culture

Overview
Date + Time: Tue., October 3, 2017, 9:00 – 19:00 (tentative end time)
Venue: Spiral Hall (SPIRAL, 3F)   5-6-23 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0062

Speakers (alphabetical order):
Iwan Baan (Photographer), Manabu Chiba (Professor, The University of Tokyo), Terunobu Fujimori (Professor Emeritus, The University of Tokyo), Hideo Hama (Professor, Keio University), Takashi Homma (Photographer), Taro Igarashi (Professor, Tohoku University), Toshiharu Ikaga (Professor, Keio University), Koh Kitayama (Professor, Hosei University), Hiroto Kobayashi (Professor, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University), Shigeo Kobayashi (Professor, Tokyo City University), Yuichiro Kodama (Professor Emeritus, Kobe Design University), Tetsu Kubota (Associate Professor, Hiroshima University), Michele De Lucchi (Architect/Designer), Takashi Machimura (Professor, Hitotsubashi University), Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani (Professor Emeritus, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich), Shin Muramatsu (Professor, The University of Tokyo), Norihito Nakatani (Professor, Waseda University), Koji Sato (Associate Professor, National Museum of Ethnology), Tsuyoshi Seike (Associate Professor, The University of Tokyo), Tsukasa Takenaka (AnS Studio), Takaharu Tezuka (Professor, Tokyo City University), Yoshiharu Tsukamoto (Professor, Graduate School of Environment and Society, Tokyo Institute of Technology), Makoto Yokomizo (Professor, Tokyo University of the Arts)

* Please be noted that the event programs are subject to change without notice.
* Prior registration is required for the talk event and symposium. Registration begins mid-August on the exhibition website. http://madogaku.madoken.jp/en/

 

Creative Team of the Windowology 10^th Anniversary Exhibition: The World Through the Window

Exhibition Director　Taro Igarashi (Professor, Tohoku University / General Supervisor of Windowology)
Windowology was launched 10 years ago as a unique research project unlike any other in the world. In the course of its development, it has ranged far into various domains, including design, language, environment, health, ethnology, history, stories, manga, and film. This speaks to the fact that windows, in addition to being key elements in a buildingʼs design, are tied to human behaviors and also reflect their social, cultural, and technological circumstances. This Windowology exhibition will present the many fruits of our collaborative efforts with researchers and university laboratories to look at the world through the window. Additionally, we will be making use of the exhibition setting to show window-themed spatial installations created by contemporary artists and a photographer. We hope that the unique artwork and research presentations will bring visitors to realize that the window is the most wonderful element of architecture.

Exhibition Design　Tezzo Nishizawa (Architect)
This exhibition will be composed of exhibition installations for displaying the Windowology research materials and window-themed art installations by Leandro Erlich, Takashi Homma, and Yusuke Kamata. The exhibition installations will be made of windows inscribed with captions, tables adapted to the various research materials that will be presented in completely different mediums, and steel legs. The exhibition items will be arranged in each of Spiralʼs distinctive exhibition spaces based on their size, format, matter, prominence, and information content in such a way as to generate a sequence, moments of stoppage, niches, and text flows. I have aimed to create an exhibition design that itself becomes a “window” to Windowology.

Exhibition Graphics　 Ken Okamoto (Graphic Designer)
I have composed the visuals for the exhibition and international symposium with large blue and red color planes, respectively, to suggest a concordance between the two events. The drawing by Michele De Lucchi that I have combined with the color planes symbolically expresses the origins of Windowology. I used the character “展” [ten] from the word “展覧会” [tenrankai, “exhibition”] and the character “会” [kai] from the word “会議” [kaigi, “conference”] as motifs to turn the color planes into intuitive icons that signify each event.

Poster Visual　Michele De Lucchi (Architect/Designer)
The poster visuals have been designed using an illustration drawn by Michele De Lucchi, who stated in an interview with the Window Research Institute that “Windows are the most important element in architecture”. The illustration is accompanied by an important message that he wishes for everyone to remember: “There is always a good reason to open a window smiling!”

 

◆2017 Windowology 10^th Anniversary Project

Window Research Institute Annex to Open on October 1 to Mark the 10th Anniversary of the Windowology Program
The Window Research Institute Annex will be housed in the YKK Izumi
Building, located adjacent the YKK 80 Building.
Address: 9F & 10F, YKK Izumi Building, Kanda Izumi-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Spaces
– Windowology Salon: A hub for academic research on windows and architecture.
– Windowology Library: A collection of more than 700 books and reference materials related to windows and Windowology research.
– Windowology Studio: A media studio for disseminating the Window Research Instituteʼs original window- and architecture-related research to the world.

Contents
– Collection of window-related artwork: Includes paintings and sculptural works by Michele De Lucchi and photographs of Le Corbusierʼs windows by Takashi Homma, among numerous other works.
– Archives of Windowology research
– Virtual reality videos of masterpiece windows: A research project for experiencing window spaces of famous buildings around the world in virtual reality.

Interior Design
The interiors have been designed by Naohiko Hino, architect of fashion brand Visvimʼs stores.

Using the Window Research Institute Annex
The facility will be shown privately to the press prior to October 2017. Later, after the official opening, we will begin giving researchers and university laboratories access to use the space by reservation. We hope that by establishing this space as a hub and archives for window-related knowledge, we can expand the breadth of our activities with the objective of enrooting window culture in society.

 

◆Windowology
“Windowology” refers to the research activities YKK AP initiated in 2007 to explore the window as an academic subject from various angles under the philosophy that “windows represent civilization and culture”. We have been working to contribute to the shaping of better architecture, better cities, and a better society through defining the positions of windows in history and culture, identifying their significance and roles, and shedding light on their appeal and potential. Over the past 10 years, we have worked together with approximately 15 schools, including the University of Tokyo, Waseda University, and Keio University, and with 55 researchers, architects, and artists to conduct interdisciplinary research on more than 40 themes related to windows.

Windowology, which examines not only the technological aspects but also historical, cultural, and social roles and significance of windows, is an initiative that poses to society a new relationship between companies and society and between companies and universities.

We have been disseminating the findings of Windowology research both domestically and internationally through our own original publications, exhibitions, and research workshops to share the information with society and widely convey the value and potential of windows. In 2014, we exhibited a window-themed installation at the Milano Salone, the worldʼs largest international trade fair of furniture and design, in collaboration with architecture studio Atelier Bow-Wow and presented the findings of our joint research at the University of Milan.

◆Window Research Institute
The Window Research Institute was established in 2013 as an internal organization within YKK AP Inc. to conduct Windowology research activities. The institute, which is headed by professional officer Kinuko Yamamoto and staffed by a team of approximately 10 members, focuses on examining and researching the window from an academic perspective together with researchers and architects.

 

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