In an unofficial poll amongst a group of architects on the content of this blog I was asked to show a bit of process in our work.

The problem is that while it is a great idea, in the end so much of the process that drives architectural design is filled with stillborn images and half-complete models that finding a nice way to present it in a way that makes any sense at all is a bit of a challenge.  All those fantastic animations from BIG and OMA make it seem so easy, as if they went from A to Z in a straight line (this is one of my favorites).  The reality, for us at least, is a host of zig-zagging branches that more often than not simply stop.  I have piles of sketchbooks and decrepit models to prove it.

So for the sake of our own sanity, and out of simple recognition that we don’t have the time to make the detritus of our normal messy methods into anything presentable, we instead will simplify by showing a few sketches and models and try to explain the basic concept in a bit more detail than normal.

In the meantime, I will start in the middle, with a group of sketches for the project that marked the point where we had finally worked out the main ideas of the design.  A stack of images and models came before this and after as well, but at the end the house is going to look more or less like this.

entrance to the site

kitchen and stairs to roof deck

aerial sketch used to illustrate revised structure after original version hit roadblock

The why, where, and when of the house are topics I will leave for the future.

we have been busy as hens in a fox house for the past few months and blogging has always somehow ended up as the last thing on the to-do list.  Part of the busy-ness is that I was asked to do two lecture courses on planning and architecture at Waseda University last fall and as I now know from experience, speaking for 6 hours a week takes about 20 hours a week of preparation.  The course is over though and it is now break time so here I am again.   Luckily we will return to the blog with a new building that is just about to begin construction, which was really the point of this blog to begin with.  More of that in future posts.

In other news we are still finding the Yoyogi house is attractive to publications, which is a bit of a surprise, if a nice one.  It will be featured in C3 magazine in near future, and was included in the Korean version of Detail magazine last September.  If interested in the latter you can download by clicking on the cover image below (15.7Mb)

More about the new building under way in future posts.

we are busy with a new house design in center of tokyo, but managed to scrape together the time to write an article for спални комплектиtown and country planning, a journal based in the UK. take a look if interested by clicking on the image above.

As a small side event, we were recently invited to show our work at a local gallery space in lakeside-villa country outside Tokyo, in an area called Yamanakako. Models and panels will be up for about a month.

Recently I read an article explaining the way Herzog and DeMeuron treat their exhibitions as a continuation of their architectural ideas, and have to admit the idea is quite interesting and appealing. We attempted to follow that model by showing a few projects that express the idea of what architecture might look like when it is allowed to be lost in its landscape – urban jungle or mountain forest. Hopefully that idea will get across. If not, at the very least we are definitely expressing the concept of what a young office looking for interesting work looks like.

the last few months we have been busy with lectures and travel, and otherwise things are just….happening.

Recenty we have been lucky enough to be invited to lecture at universities in Canada and Israel, and have been active writing papers for academic journals. I will post some of these in the future, once I figure out how to make them blog-friendly.

Somehow the Yoyogi house still seems to be interesting to people as well. Two weeks ago I gave a tour to a group of archi-cyclists, which was a great experience. Organised by a fellow who runs what I can only call an old-time “cultural salon” here in Tokyo, the theme of the tour was buildings by Dutch architects. Since we are half Dutch we were put on the list along with offices including MVRDV and others, which is awesome company.

The house also was published online at arch-daily, which is great considering the quality of work that usually appears on that site. Because its digital, we get to read the feedback of readers, which is sometimes odd, but fun to read nonetheless.

Finally, on the PR front, Terri Peters wrote a very flattering article on our office that was published in Clear Magazine this month.

Other things also in the works, so looks like we will have lots more to write about here in the next months.