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0:09
OK. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to tonight's special Dan Kiley lecture. Thank you for our guests that are coming from Boston and other cities around the Boston area. For those of you that don't know me, I'm Anita Berrizbeitia, Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture, and I am very pleased to introduce tonight GSD alum, design critic, and Most Distinguished Landscape Architect, Toru Mitani. Toru is a founding partner, with Hiroki Hasegawa, Chisa Toda,
0:53
and Yuuki Suzuki, of 'studio on site,' and a professor of Landscape Architecture at Chiba University's School of Horticulture in Tokyo. Throughout two and a half decades in practice, he has built a remarkable portfolio of projects, many of them in collaboration with distinguished Japanese architects such as Fumihiko Machi, Shigeru Ban, and Say Takeyama, to name a few. Toru's intellectual formation is unique in both American and Japanese disciplinary contexts. He received a Master of Architecture
1:30
from the University of Tokyo, and a Master of Landscape Architecture here at the GSD in 1987, continuing on to receive his PhD from the University of Tokyo in 1992. As a scholar his research has focused on Asian gardens, specifically the gardens of Korea, modern China, and Japanese gardens and urban landscapes, both historical and contemporary. Not so well-known is the impact that American landscape architecture has had in his career. The two primary influences for Toru while he was at Harvard
2:09
were minimalism's focus on landscape expression as both material and visual logic, and related to this, phenomenology's position that one makes sense of the world through visual perception. A third key influence on Toru has been none other than the American landscape itself, specifically precision agriculture, those forms of production in which management and cultivation take on a serial expression at immense scales as seen in the American mid- and southwest.
2:46
Finally, American earthworks, land art, and extraction landscapes were the topics of his 1992 dissertation. While he was a student at the GSD, we saw, with great envy, how he drove across the country twice, first following a southern route, Boston-LA, returning via the northern route, San Francisco back to Boston. In this, his own version of the Grand Tour, he documented the sights that would eventually be the subject of his dissertation, and of a series of essays he published in Japanese
3:21
upon his return to Japan a few years later. His essay, Pilgrimage Through the American Landscape, his translation into the Japanese of John Beardsley's Earthworks and Beyond, and a series of articles on landscape architects Peter Walker, George Hargreaves, and others, were the result of his fruitful journey through the United States.
3:48
Perhaps, as a result of this double immersion in Japanese and American design culture, Toru has-- over the past two and a half decades-- positioned his work at the intersection of what are typically competing frameworks of design. Ecologies mandate for heterogeneity on the one hand, and minimalism on the other. Or, as can be seen in the exhibition outside, a cross [? scaler ?] nimbleness that enables the work to express both system and craft, figure and field,
4:21
and horizontality and extent across careful measure. Toru sustained commitment to both design and scholarly research, and [? through ?] creative practice embody what I call the complete designer-- individuals who contribute consistently through their productive careers, with unwavering appetite for the many forms of knowledge that landscape architecture demands. Studio on Site has received many awards for many of the projects that you see outside from many organizations,
4:58
including the Japan Institute of Landscape Architecture, the Good Design Gold Award-- also a Japanese award-- the Architectural Institute of Japan, the Civil Engineering Design Award, and the Organization for Landscape and Urban Green Infrastructure, to name a few. It has been our pleasure to have you here with us, Toru. Please join me in welcoming the 2017 Daniel Urban Kiley lecturer, Toru Mitani. [applause]
5:36
Excuse me, they are preparing. And let me use this time for my impression of the GSD [inaudible] comparing. When I was a student, it's good impression of GSD. You have a very good community between departments. When I was a student, it's kind of separated. And I have option studio, and a student from landscape architecture, and urban design or architecture-- we mix and talk together. And always we have to work. In the real [inaudible] we have to work. And always [? project ?] collaboration.
6:21
You don't design by yourself. Structure engineers and equipment designers. It's good, but still I think we should find out each landscape architecture and the urban design. See what's your standing point, and clear professional pride, and clear differentiation of professions. And let's make a good collaboration. So an option studio mixture is great, but we need such a relationship. And the other things, is now may I tell this, [inaudible]?? You are so digitalized. And when I ask the--
7:13
OK, coming-- but [inaudible] just I should talk [inaudible].. When I ask the student to make a model, they go down. Just move your hand. Modeling is a process of thinking. Can I start? Sure. Now I [? having ?] the true project. OK, thank you very much today, and my lecture is about exhibition landscape-- fabric of detail.
7:56
It's obviously Halloween evening, and more and more pumpkin come out the street. Made me nervous. Because today is Halloween. But I shouldn't spend such [inaudible].. But I realized I can't find this kind of pumpkin so much, with details. So I feel you are losing a very traditional detailing craft, so this is the best day to talk about the detail.
8:39
And details-- so when they start the details study, everyone said, oh, Toru, you are so [? architectonic, ?] you are a landscape architect. But I think some detail is very [? much ?] over landscape architecture. For example, the rake pattern on Zen Buddhist garden is not ornament, as you know. And not only the narrative representation, but it's very functional. The engineering factors [? buckled ?] it. I don't have time to talk about it. But for example, [inaudible] Jingu, Kyoto,
9:15
east side of the pond there is this kind of stone work. And they are talking a lot about the balance of the large or small or medium size of stone. But after the storm, if you go there, it's working very well as a strainer. All leaves, twigs stop there, and not let them in the pond. And the other thing is, why we don't talk about details so much? Because the [? part ?] of nature. And it's very phenomenal, it's difficult to record the drawings. But such detail is, indeed, the essential part
9:52
for the space of a landscape architect, and succeeded by gardeners for century and centuries. So today I talk about the detail of the surface, cloud, and the reflection.
10:07
First project, Kaze-no-Oka Crematorium. It's the three-hectare park besides the crematorium. And it's a kind of upper part of the river terrace.
10:36
And this is my first sketch when I visited the site. And I had the impression that, oh, that's a chance to make Earthwork for me. And it's worked very well for the bold landscape, this kind [? of. ?] From the beginning, this is this kind of [? concaved ?] Earthwork I had imagined. And about [? 120 ?] and [? 50 ?] meter over Earthwork, we call it Earth dish-- it's concaved. And the challenge provide a sense of void, instead of the use for the people.
11:23
And Earth dish-- this is tilted from east to west. And north to south. And first I designed these Earthwork, and when I [inaudible] started to [? tilt ?] his architecture also like this.
11:46
So as a result of this concaved earth, is the space to spread [inaudible] for the funeral and cremation. Concave is good at creating a distance like this.
12:05
As I expected, I was succeeded to have a [? borrowing ?] landscape like this. And edge, the [? perimeter ?] of the oval [? earthwork ?] is the [? path ?] approaching the [inaudible] crematorium.
12:23
But what I talk here, how to visualize the earth form, and how to being aware of the earth's geometry. And the clue in my project here is these stitch line you see, like this. And as a matter of fact, these parallel line is a kind of template to guide our [inaudible] to come cut out for him. But actually, in the construction, we were surprised that it worked very well to get the exact grading. And we use these [inaudible],, because it is concaved. And it's easy way to get the exact earth
13:07
form for the contractor. The result was successful. Without this kind of a line, you don't see any appearance of the surface of the earth. Maybe it is just a large ditch of the earth. People love it, but sometimes they misunderstand it's a stepping stone to end up at the wall.
13:40
Depth of the path is important, I think. For landscape architecture, the path is not just a [inaudible],, it's a tool to show the surface of the earth. For example, I made maybe one or two inch [? skirt, ?] and a stand at the [inaudible] edge, and the stop to finish. And I create space here, creating the shadow. And we made a lot of [? mark ?] up on [? the ?] side.
14:21
I expected it has a shadow like this here, but unexpectedly, the stainless edge got the reflection of light. And I was happy to showing a sharp contrast between the footpath and earth's surface. And now this is up here after [? 20 ?] years. I visited last year. And it's merging with grass, and this [inaudible] merging with the grass. But still giving a sense of distance of a surface. Also, the edge of the surface must be treated very carefully, I think. But this kind of form is--
15:06
the contractor always complain to make this kind of complicated [? form ?] work. But I think it succeeded. It looks like this-- it's just a one inch [? tall ?] concrete edge, but shouldn't be two inch or three inch, I thought. And sometimes it's sunken, and sometimes it's raised up. And how much the height of this rise-- if it's two inch or three inch-- must be very careful. Otherwise, kind of sense of suffer, you see [? old ?] shadow of these destroyed. [? fontana-- ?] he is very conscious
15:54
about the frame of the canvas. And he always has a knife cut here. So I looked for the chance to get a hole, or a slit, and actually the center of the [? earthwork. ?] [inaudible] There is a large basin for the storm reservoir. So I utilize it as a hole and the slit, and set the bench on it.
16:35
And actually, there is a [? anemometer ?] at the south gate here, and make sounds of wind bell. And that sound [? brought ?] into that well. And they make a very subtle small sounds, a beautiful wind sound, from the underground.
16:58
[? actually, ?] while in the construction the city in charge of this project was worrying about-- Toru, this is crematorium, so no human voice from the underground. But finally we got very good sounds. And eventually, it was happening that we encounter the real [? earthwork, ?] ancient tomb. So I took advantage of these to make another sense of the surface setting. This is a indication of each tomb. But I'm setting another layer under the ground layer.
17:45
It's a good contrast, and revealing the existing of the earth surface.
17:54
So in this project, I learned tiny depths, thinness of the edge play with light. And this continuous shadow is important detail for creating the sense of spreading surface.
18:11
OK, next project, Fukui Prefectural Library, with [? humiku ?] [? komaki ?] again. It's chance to examine the detail method of the creating the sense of surface. It's the middle of a vast rice field. But it's Prefectural Library, a huge [? volume ?] come out. So our strategy has a large [? mound ?] that east side [? and south side ?] of the earth globe.
18:47
And here I try to deal with the mound. That's a large, four-meter high, large mound. Has a tilted plane, instead of the huge volume, the mound. Otherwise, that mound would enclose this space, and it interrupt the space spread out to the sky.
19:10
And then the surface with the footpath provides a visual measure to [? sound ?] the distance, [? like ?] making a frame. Footpath is is making the frame in landscape. And my strategy is very simple and subtle. This parallel line is a two-inch shallow ditch, and bring the water to the drainage along the footpath. So it's a part of drainage system.
19:42
But it creates a shallow shadow at sunset time. During the day invisible, so sometimes it appears to create a sense of surface.
19:56
Peter Walker told me, I remember, is that we landscape architects are soldier without any gun, even [inaudible],, because we have only earth, trees, water-- that's all. Nothing concrete, glass-- like architect. In the south part, I [? played ?] a straight [? path ?] with mound, and created a picturesque view. But, again, the contractor complained to me. Said, how to create such a three-dimensional path? So I told them, I don't know.
20:35
But they tried, and the results were very good. Now, kids like to have a bike or skateboarding or rollerskating in here. Anyway, the footpath is always the heart of the landscape. It means other elements, like those, should be together integrated with the footpath, and [inaudible]. So sometimes I combined-- this is a basin rim. This works as a reflector of the footlight. And I have footlight just center of the path, and the people go around. This is a water supply.
21:22
It's all integrated in the footpath. Then, [? they ?] [? in the plane, ?] nothing.
21:30
So why we need such an effort to create a sense of surface, I asked me. I think because we are using a program or function as an opportunity to review the existence of a surface, and the existence of earth.
21:54
So I like to talk about, next, the detail of the cloud. I titled the cloud, but just literally saying [? the woods. ?] First, I would like introduce the Okutama Forest Therapy. It's the project among the crowd-- in other words, among the forest. And if I talk about forest therapy. Forest therapy totally different from hiking [? way, ?] or a climbing-- even different from the forest bathing. It's a kind of medical treatment based on the proof and evidence. So they need a flat and a wider way.
22:36
And so the trail is not actually path, it's a place to have a rest, [? have a lot of program. ?] The site is along the valley here, like this. And it's a small project, and 1,200 meter trail around the [inaudible]. The trail has a [? free ?] station we call the architectural facilities-- for the explanation of [inaudible] or other program. Sometimes they have wooden stove counseling, like [inaudible] here, hearing the water, the sounds of the stream. And between those stations, we prepared--
23:22
we required the place for the many kinds of program of [? rain ?] down, the workshop, and the yoga, or like that. So for getting the wider, flat path--
23:42
at the beginning, we thought it's simple, easy. Because if we have the path along the contour, we get a flat path. But in the reality, these mountain-- hillside in Tokyo-- is very steep like this. So we have to make the peaceful therapy trail, but long, long retaining wall. [? one ?] meter, we need a two meter high retaining [? wall. ?] So what should we do? We are really confused. And the solution is use these retaining walls as a part of furniture.
24:17
It gives the appearance [? of ?] retaining on this [? furniture. ?] It's simple. It's just setting this kind of steel net sitting bench. Then the retaining wall looks like furniture, don't you think so? [laughing]
24:35
But still, we have next obstacle-- low-budget. This is public sector, public project, so we couldn't have any special detail or design. Everything must be standard. And my partner, Yuuji Suzuki, is incredible. He found somewhere a kind of timesaver you're using, the standard construction, the forest civil engineering. That's this book. So he said, Toru, just copy it, copy this. And it gets down the cost estimation drastically, yes. So what we did-- the structure is same.
25:23
But what we did is just going back on the site many, many times, telling to the contractors, please face these logs. Please align the bolts. Please cut straight. [laughing] Otherwise, they're just contracting the standard details, and looks so ugly, and it's not peaceful. Because they don't think such a kind of civil engineering can provide designed space. This plaza is used at night to watch the starlight. That's very popular. I'm very glad. But they gave this plaza a strange name.
26:07
It's "Wild Planetarium." Don't you think? Right. But I'm very glad that that standard detail gives a chance to people to lay down and watch up the trees and the sky beyond it. So simply find material and unifying the details is the shortest way to cost down. So here, everything made of lumber from the forest thinning. For example, this kind of deck for the [inaudible],, tables, and [? arm ?] basin, we call. And it is for the program, cooling down the blood pressure.
26:52
Bring back the stream water here and cool down the arms. Or some part, overhang deck, is also lumber.
27:08
And after we made a lot of effort to creating this retaining wall, the Forest Therapy program again, required me, we need more wider space. So we had to prepare this kind of floated deck. It's also made by the log, the same kind of detail.
27:32
They used-- this suite is for a place, various workshops on consulting. And this is my first study model. And didn't like it, because this kind of usual structure contained a shadow-- large shadow and a darker place on the deck. And I have a feeling that many spiders here. [laughing] So the structure we used is this lattice, triangular structure. And the angle of the structure, giving the good design of the handrail, too. And it gives-- this kind could be possible by that lattice
28:19
structure floating deck.
28:23
And it's a shelter. We call it shelter. It's almost simple combination of logs, because we don't have any other materials. So all these logs tied [? here ?] by L-shaped angles and tied up by a joint bar-- joint bolt, maybe. And sometimes, this shelter sank down under the deck, creating a private space for personal counseling, or such a kind of thing, talking.
29:03
And white cubic shelter works as a kind of--
29:10
OK, I should push this button.
29:16
The white shelters work as a marking point on the long trail, because it's good for the person. Sometimes, they have, in the condition mentally weak, so they are afraid to get in the dark forest. So we provide a very bright place to, this is the distance we should go. And for an experiment, I set one of shelter far out of path in the wood. But today, it's a popular place. A kind of couple--
29:55
Nice. And here, I would show, under the standard civil engineering detail, it's a stone wall. It's using the riverside stones. It's very vernacular in Japan, or very popular. We can see this kind of stone anywhere in Japan. But I never see it designed. So I had a simple treatment using this drainage line, cross drainage and vertical drainage. But I set those drainage at the polygonal line for the folded retaining wall, just that. But it now looks like the structure for space.
30:43
At station three, the wall is integrated with the architecture. It means a kind of marriage of art form and architecture space. We intentionally closed the interior space toward the forest but opened up to the stone, because I like people see the stone wall I make. [laughing] So everyone watching the stone wall. But it makes a soft reflection. Light of the reflection-- it's coming in the room, makes the room bright. But still again, here-- I visited this many, many times.
31:23
Some of the stone work contractors-- that's your work, that's your work! But he didn't understand. He just worked as I told.
31:36
I learned a kind of conclusion. The key is not what the structure is, but how the light and shadow condition is. How is it revealed by these structures? And it depends on the way of forest thinning and where we have a open space. It's decided the direction of the light. And more importantly, these structures reflect the movement, or the fluctuation of the light. That's very important for rest and therapy. And more about the structure. It's set there to reveal the--
32:25
sometimes, it's a duplicate of the movement, fluctuation, above air and at the foot. So it's an amplified fluctuation.
32:40
All detailed effort for it simply sees results-- low cost. Very important. And the simplicity reveals the nature of the cloud of landscape. I learned that for a project [inaudible].. The next file. Now in creating the cloud in the city, the first project is Shinagawa Central Garden. But actually, this model is a concept model I made in 1992. It's the middle of Tokyo. Shinagawa station, large Shinkansen station. And they had a large development, and eventually--
33:25
that time, I came back from America. So this is my first concept model, just using pins, while developers are discussing how to use this open space for the people. So I brought in this model. Lets use the space for trees. I'm a landscape architect, you know. [laughing] So this is my first scheme. But actually, construction in 2003-- we have almost 13 years. And while those 13 years, a lot of people brought in-- oh, Toru, why don't we use the space for events, kids' garden?
34:13
And they said a rose garden, and some hills, and parks. No, I said, let's fill the displays with just trees. So this is the final plan. I compromised. I filled up the trees. And always, we have to compromise with the people and the client. But it developed the scheme a lot. I have a lot of variation of the plaza. But all the trees line up, actually. And it's concave again. This is the result in 2003. Except 242 Cercidiphyllum and Quercus, nothing special. In other words, no program.
34:59
Instead of program in the center of the city, I think it's our responsibility of landscape architect. I am happy to see today actually many, many people sitting down under the canopy, as you can see. And I'd like to [? study ?] again of detail.
35:22
The elements, so the motif break through this scheme, is this tree bar, I called. One tree bar contains five Cercidiphyllum. And it is a band of floated PC panel, as you see, the CPC panel. And protecting the root environment from compression. So I repeated that tree bands along the 40,000-meter mall, and it gets unity. But each place has a different kind of pavement-- sometimes just gray. In parts, it's just flat with other pavement.
36:10
In some other parts, the tree bar plays with green mounds. But the repetition gives five Cercidiphyllum laws. And that regularity appears at evening by the lighting pattern. Because I set all lighting and the bench on the tree bar. So tree bar have everything again, and other personal elements.
36:42
This is a diagram-- the relationship of plaza and I [? say ?] cloud here. The pitch of 6 meter by 6.5 is decided of the size of Cercidiphyllum. But finally, I realize, it's very good Japanese privacy, or private use of people enjoying their each private space under the trees, and a good distance for them. So good for Cercidiphyllum means good for us.
37:20
I remember this time, Laurie Olin told in the field trip in Philadelphia, the pavement design is for the trees. It is a screen of their shadow. Here's a pavement-- it's a screen for the tree shadows. I remember that Laurie Olin told that to us. I found this old sketch in my sketchbook. Traffic in structure underground, and a variety of people use on [? grade. ?] But the identity of the place realized of cloud above it. There are seven [? follies ?] among the grove.
38:04
You see, these, we call these [? follies. ?] They are actually the exhaust, or inlet intake tower, for the underground traffic system.
38:24
Frames are finished by black, or polished, or rusted stainless steel. Black make a frame, but the polished part, you have a reflection of trees. Means they increase the texture of the clouds.
38:43
Here, one [? follies, ?] the polished side duplicated, triplicated the sense of cloud. Water features are also designed for such reflection. I realized, when all those finishing details are unified very well, the pattern of groves could be increased and increased. And it makes the space filled by the fluctuation of the cloud.
39:20
We keep the relationship with the maintenance gardener very well. And we have this kind of chart. This is bad trimming, this is good trimming. So trimming advising-- the discussion is very important through the maintenance. It's another detail design. Today, through those efforts, the Cercidiphyllum are growing fine and turning orange and yellow together with them. And I love the texture and the color of the Cercidiphyllum. In winter, they have the beautiful red [inaudible]..
39:57
Deciduous tree is a totally different space composition of the evergreen.
40:07
Dialogue with roots. I love this book. Maybe [inaudible] Library has this. I don't know. It's illustrations of tree roots by Dr. [? noboru ?] Karizumi. He devoted all his life to research on roots and illustrated. It's a good, very exciting encyclopedia.
40:37
When I was young, I was so conscious about the differentiation of plane and tree trunk. But after 30 years, came back in Cambridge, I really appreciate this-- brick pavement is very flexible and looseness for root [? race. ?] It's a kind of dialogue between the city and trees. So that's a Cambridge landscape. Sometimes, I express root conditions of existing trees like this. This is a renovation of the old factory, the architect, [inaudible] has some exhibition presentation rooms.
41:30
And we spread out very geometrical lawn place, grass place.
41:41
But actually, obviously, the geometric [? earth ?] plane does not fit with the height level of these existing trees. So we had expressed such a kind of differentiation and how much root area there is, and have some detail design. Sometimes, the trees lower our geometry and preparing good drainage for tree health. And just designing the efficient root treatment with careful details-- that's enough to design the landscape architecture, I think, space.
42:27
And a recent urban project-- this is [? machida ?] City Hall? Yes. I am interested to express such a dialogue with the roots and the city. Expressing and emphasizing the scale of roots-- this is [? cerco ?] biserrata. And those roots area gives a symbolic icon in the front of the plaza. And people enjoy those space under the canopies.
42:58
In fact, in urban construction, we prepare a lot of engineering for root conditioning. And not only the support, not only the drainage, not only the irrigation, aeration tube, or aggregate, rooting system-- we have a lot of things. But all those efforts are hidden, so I like to, there is such a kind of effort under the ground. And sometimes, we bring our design into a productization, in catalogue. It is another way keep the construction cost low. It's product.
43:39
For example, these fan-shaped PC support each other in this kind of shallow cone shape.
43:54
Create a large space under it. It must be a shallow cone, so I expect this keeps people realize walking on it-- oh, this is-- we are walking on the roots. Thank you very much. [laughing] Thank you, trees, giving the space for us. So those engineering results, the creation of the air of the cloth, root and cloth, is combined. Sometimes, I mulch [inaudible] trees a lot according to the Michael Van Valkenburgh's advice. [laughing] Only one is laughing at that! We are all the students, yeah.
44:37
I will go to next slides. I titled it "Details for Reflection," but simply, I'm talking about water features.
44:47
And here, I introduce just ongoing projects. So no after the construction photograph. Most recent project, this is Shigeru Ban. We won the competition Heritage Center of the Mountain Fuji. This is a stream flows right next to the site.
45:12
The Sengen Shrine has a beautiful fountain from Mt. Fuji, and the stream runs down along the approach. And the site's just beside the stream-- oh, that's a nice site, we thought, actually. But in reality, it's surprising. The site is here, and the stream, here. And there is a shrine gate. And this large parking lot not included in the competition. [laughing] That's awful! And we went to the site. [laughing] Stream over there, site behind the fence. This is out of sight.
45:56
So I told Shigeru Ban, let's forget about the competition, to win the competition. It's kind of rude-- getting the first prize and just, no way. So we just spread out the sheet of-- OK.
46:17
Spread out the sheet of water and continued the [inaudible] on center to the stream by the water feature. And we forget about the competition. But finally, the committee chose our idea for first prize. Then after that, the prefecture and the city has to purchase that parking lot for their project. But I said, thank you very much. [laughing] But now, again, the public project, and they need a budget for buying the land. So very low-budget. So all my fault. It's very simple, just a sheet of water.
46:58
And all my effort-- it's clear sheet of water. And detail of the edge and creating large, quiet sheet of water.
47:13
[? boston ?] [inaudible] has a very simple space configuration, and expression is a wall and a plate, horizontality. But I think it's his detail-- overhanging the paving on the water is successful. Otherwise, if you have vertical water [? here, ?] it's just a container of the wall. But now here, the sheet of water is an expression, it's a horizontality of the material. And Scarpa. Yeah, I should go here. Scarpa. It's his magician of creating the shadow on the water and sometimes under the water.
47:55
And he has a lot of layers between eight-inch thickness of water and having a lot of layers. And emphasizing the green is one surface. We learned a lot from the Scarpa. And also, [inaudible] is so successful. He has, again, the same detail, overhanging on the water. So stone side-- never wet. And it looks like floated over the water. So we feel the weight, thickness, of the stone so much. The shadow works very well. And we challenge to see how we can make this shadow minimal.
48:43
But it's a huge water, so water circulation is a huge amount. And what's the minimum size? We calculated with the engineer a lot. And how we combined the concrete structure and a steel structure, make these stone finishes as much as [? same. ?] Now it's in the spring, construction starts. And Shigeru Ban started his structure, and we combine with his color, chose a lot of stone. I think we chose this stone from China. And now, the architecture almost finished. Now, interior construction.
49:33
And our site, the landscape slab is starting the construction. See this. Now, if we had followed the competition regulation, the [inaudible] circumstances [? look ?] like this. But today, now we have a large plate. I'm waiting, looking for to see the simple water feature has a reflection of this shape, [inaudible] Shigeru Ban. This is another ongoing project. It's a research center in Yamagata. It's a very northern part of Japan. It's countryside. This is the site.
50:17
It's a beautiful rice field, and the vastness. And our concept model like this. Our proposal is overlaying the facilities, architecture facilities, on the existing rice field with minimum impact, with minimum disturbance. So to the client, we have this kind of presentation model.
50:46
Just-- we slipped the photograph of the rice field under our model. This is spring, rice field is green in summer. And beautiful golden surface in the autumn. And still, in the winter, the white surface-- beautiful. And in the early spring, they have seeding, a lot of nitrogen-fixed groundcover. In Japan, we have a lot of pinkish flowers in the rice field. So please see this.
51:31
Rice field is definitively Japanese primary landscape in mind. And this image I am showing is now is [inaudible] that I did for two years ago. So I like. But the people living in the countryside don't care about anything of it. It's just farmland. But it's the strongest expression of the landscape.
52:03
For the layout plan like this, we employ the traditional formation of the farmer's house and grove, characteristics of landscape. We realize it's in scale. And the same scale of our facilities and the existing farmer's house. So we started the survey of the existing windbreak and domestic species. [? almost ?] Quercus, or Castanopsis, or like that. Sometimes the [inaudible] cypress and conifers, mixed. And we found a wooden fence remained there with the trees, at the foot of the trees.
52:49
Maybe, we guessed, and we had an interview, they used this kind of wood fence to protect the small trees when you set the windbreak. And after the tree grow, then stop the wind at the foot of tree, they use this kind of defense. So I decided we design it. Our next is nothing [inaudible]. You It's a kind of serendipity for landscape architect, always, when we step in this site. I think it's a kind of wild poppy. So we thought this kind of long wood fence
53:29
will be a primary landscape element in [? all ?] stage of the tree growth.
53:37
So carefully, but in inexpensive way-- that's important-- we study the detail of their construction method.
53:48
As a matter of fact, that fence was experimentally applied at the center of Tokyo Bay to create a forest for future development. Inside, we planted baby trees for future forests with everyone. We employed every student in my school, and the contractor, and architects, landscape architects. Also, the client, the president, also planting. We worked together. And now, just the fence is visible. Behind the fence, we have baby trees. But it has a good contrast with the center of Tokyo,
54:35
beyond Tokyo Bay. One important concept we discussed with the developer here is how to keep the vacant lot as aesthetical in the landscape during the long, long, slow development. Today, the city, as you know-- very slow developing, very slow. So we have, always, a lot of vacant lots. And they see this-- just vacant lot. But must be a good landscape. So I thought the fence design is a clue. Then, as a matter of fact, some art curator called younger artists. Like this, used my fence--
55:22
tree nursery.
55:28
Some experimental art festival, they have. One of the fence is painted by a graphic artist like this. But anyway, this is celebrating the nursery, the baby trees, and celebrating the vacant lot under the process of slow urban development. Let's come back, again, the Yamagata Prefecture, for the rice field. So now the story of the rice field besides those house groves. Now, I was so curious, the water network you see in the rice fields-- there is a very complicated water network.
56:12
And also, it's not farmer's concern, but inlet, outlet, or overflow channel-- those grids, so nice music of the water. It's very small sound, but while you are walking, it's beautiful sounds of water. So rice fields filled by the sounds of water. But sometimes, too many, they have. It's mysterious. So now, our design-- most effort is layout of the channel. Where is the irrigation? Where is the overflow? And creating the details of outlet, inlet,
56:59
and overflow to create good sounds of water and echo.
57:08
And also-- oh, I remember another thing I learned from Hideo Sasaki. We are walking on Hawaii. Hideo told me that, Toru, water is not material. Water is sounds and reflection. That's the phrase I remember from Hideo. And also, we are discussing to bring back the traditional water network with this kind of small reservoir. This small reservoir keeps the heterogeneous species, insects and animals, under the snow. But modernized rice field don't use this kind of reservoir.
57:53
So all insects-- they have died.
58:05
It's still ongoing project. I hope we can recreate again the rice fields landscape. Thank you very much. And for the conclusion, the fabric of detail. Yeah, I should have-- sorry. I was asking him to open the file, and forgetting I opened it.
58:39
Detail and landscape-- these two words stand in a vastly different scale, I think. But any beautiful fabric is just the result of the careful, simple, creative, detailed process like this. It's string and fabric. And I love the Grant Wood paintings. And also, the famous painting of the countryside. As you say, Grandma Moses? Anna Moses? Now, what is the difference? I do not like so much Anna's paintings. What's the difference? West of America, east of America.
59:29
But it's about material, physical space. But she is expressing the people's daily life, the happiness, and the culture. Professor Mark [? tribe ?] writing about this well.
59:49
So Wood's painting is about, again, the earth. The reason he is showing-- the reason all these details, and the process of the detail-- it's almost like engineering [inaudible],, I think. More importantly, how the persistence on this detail makes essential sense of the landscape. It's scale and distance.
1:00:22
Landscape fabric of details. Once the process of detail is defined, it suddenly spreads out and creates a world, almost leaving people behind without human scale. Such a solitude of landscape provides me witness of sublime, or another world, you say. That's the reason why I worked on detail so much.
1:00:54
Thank you. [laughing] [applause]
1:01:14
Thank you, Toru. That was brilliant, as always.
1:01:20
Toru will take some questions from the audience, please?
1:01:37
Here is one right here.
1:01:41
In the Mt. Fuji Heritage Center, in the model, what materials did you use to get that beautiful reflection in the model? The reason? The materials. Material? It's [inaudible] In the model. Are you asking the material of the slab? In the model. Oh, in the model! [laughing] So you'll actually use it for your model! [laughing] I will teach you. Please use black cardboard and prepare the silver spray. And the dust of the silver spray on the black plate. Now it looks like granite. [laughing]
1:02:30
That's your question? That's important, is detail. [laughing] Yes. But so I told you, shouldn't be digitalized. Because making model process and sometimes, you find a different viewpoint from the model. And for example, if you digitalized, you got the shape you imagined. But while you are making the model by yourself, you're getting the shape, unconscious shape, from the other side. So input the data in the computer, and if it comes out from the 3D model maker, where is the dust going?
1:03:15
Sometimes, dust is very important, the other parts of the material. Oh, I shouldn't talk so much about it. OK, next question. Yes.
1:03:28
Thank you, it's beautiful work. Looking at the forest therapy path, I found myself worrying about-- if that were to be done here, worrying about two things-- safety and ADA compliance. And so I wonder how those issues come up for you in the work that you do in Japan. Questions of-- [speaking japanese]
1:03:59
Yeah, sometimes my hearing device-- Thank you, sir. Yeah, I understand. That's very important. When I was working in the hotel, a resort hotel in Hawaii, some details were decided by insurance.
1:04:18
I thought, oh, this is America. [laughing] But anyway, in the Okutama Therapy, yes, we required a lot of handrails. And for landscape architecture, how to deal with handrails is very important, because when you sit down, the handrail just comes to your eye level and interrupts all of the view. And in Okutama Forest Therapy, some parts, we set handrails for safety, but the other parts, no. So we discussed a lot with the instructor of the Forest Therapy.
1:04:57
And actually, that space now used for elder people and health wellness. And sometimes, we prepared that flat surface so the wheelchair. And there is a stream. And we tried to make a bridge over the wider stream with the handrail, but we decided not to construct it. We just let the stream going, and only the handrail on the stream. So people just grab the handrail. They walk on the rocky stream. So I don't know. Yes, safety is very important, but sometimes, people
1:05:41
should protect their own self by [inaudible].. It's a dialogue between-- I don't like to be sued. [laughing] But it's very important. If I continue all handrail along the trail, it kills the space, I think.
1:06:02
Thank you very much, asking about handrail. Even in the studio, we are teaching the 100 scale-- please think about handrail.
1:06:16
There's a question here. Sure. I was interested in the way that you were talking about the crematorium project, and the way that the architect was reacting to the landscape and tilting the building. Can you talk about that a little bit more? What was that relationship? [speaking japanese]
1:06:42
Oh, OK, all right. Yeah, with the microphone, my hearing doesn't-- yes, because it's complicated process. At first, he got the project of a crematorium. I was just designed a garden around it. But after a year, the city purchased the next land, get some budget from the country. And they decided to create a park. And park project go ahead of his crematorium. So we decided [inaudible] and tilt it like this. So then after my design, Fumihiko Maki started his design.
1:07:25
So it's lucky he liked my design. And he adjusted his architecture to the artwork. So I tilted, so he tilted. [laughing] That's the question you'd like, no? Yeah, I know what you mean. But sometimes, or most projects, architect decides everything. And sometimes under the construction, they call, Toru, come and please plant the tree here. Already, everything is set. But in such a case, I can't enjoy it. I interpret, or I read the architect's mind,
1:08:10
what he likes to do and what kind of space he likes to make. And I try to show a little bit different aspect of his concept from the landscape architecture. So it's a conversation in any stage between architect and landscape architecture.
1:08:35
Yeah. Hi. You showed a couple of images of the Scarpa Tomb Brion. You showed a couple of images of the Tomb Brion. [speaking japanese]
1:08:51
Yes. Were there other aspects of that that have influenced your work? [speaking japanese]
1:09:11
I had the impression that Scarpa-- the tomb, Scarpa's cemetery, is very landscape architecture. Because he set some tombs for the families, brothers, but the space is defined by the raised green plate. So I learned a lot how he makes the grass area as a plane instead of just earth. For example-- I couldn't show that, but maybe you know. The raised edge of the grass area is very thin, almost one inch. And he is interesting. He didn't hide the detail of the retaining wall in the earth.
1:10:03
He exposed the retaining wall, the basements of the retaining wall, thicker. So he is showing the technique, how he get the very thin edge of the earth plate. So I learned a lot from his that work from how to show the plane itself as an object instead of just earth. That's what I learned from a lot.
1:10:35
Always, the edge is important for a landscape architect. If we have a thicker edge, it's not edge. Already did frame, contained everything, like frame of the old paintings.
1:10:56
OK? Yeah, thank you. Thank you asking, yes. You talked about the responsibility of landscape architects. I want to know if you think that this kind of responsibility has already changed nowadays from 30 years ago. As a profession of a landscape architect from 30 years ago? Same. It's what should we do as a landscape architect for the society? Yeah, because I just talk about aesthetics. And all projects have the social [inaudible] and economic goal, and what kind of contribution we can do.
1:11:38
But I think the most important thing is to create the [? meeting ?] place. The city is for function, programs, how to use, what kind of activity raises the price of the land. And the people thinking about programs. But when we walk along the Charles River, no program.
1:12:03
So it's very difficult to get the design fee to create nothing. [laughing] But it's one of the landscape architect's responsibilities. Let's just leave it-- natural conservation is fine. Don't use there. That decision is very good design. But even if you design something, nothing, just trees, it releases the mind of the city people, I think. It's the same in 30 years ago, 50 years ago, and 100 years later, I think. Yeah, thank you.
1:12:53
Thank you, again, Toru, for a fantastic presentation. [applause]
1:13:05
Please join us for a reception in the exhibition. Thank you, again.
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